On 12/31/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Apply a random number generator to determine the order in which they appear each time they are downloaded.
I suppose we could use {{CURRENTSECOND}} to transclude 1 of 60 sub-templates, which in turn contain something around 200 #ifexist: statements to transclude the various AfD sub-pages. It'd be a lot of work to set up, but it's simpler than it sounds. AfD logs would look something like this...
{{AfD Log {{CURRENTSECOND}}| |Foo |Bar |Yar |Pirates |Ninjas }}
Then the page would transclude {{AfD Log 04}} (or one of 59 other templates), which each contain a lot of this, in different orders:
{{#if:{{{2|}}}|{{#ifexist:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{2}}}|{{Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{2}}}}}}}}} {{#if:{{{3|}}}|{{#ifexist:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{3}}}|{{Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{3}}}}}}}}} {{#if:{{{1|}}}|{{#ifexist:Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{1}}}|{{Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/{{{1}}}}}}}}}
Let each one take about 200-300 optional parameters, and I don't think there's much chance of an overflow.
Surely I'm missing a few things, but the general concept seems workable.
I donno if it's a good idea. Still brainstorming. "Newer noms to the top" would require a lot less overhaul, but I can see benefits from a pseudo-random arrangement such as this.
If there actually is some template that generates random numbers, somebody shoot me now. ;)
-Luna