The location of the random page link found on the "Explore" tab
The random page (Special:Random) link can be used to go to a random article in the wiki's content namespaces. This link is great as a starting point for browsing a community, for finding pages to edit and improve, or if you just want to learn a random piece of information. A link to a random page is shown in the "Explore" tab of every community.
On most communities, the content namespaces includes only the main namespace. However, some communities have custom namespaces which, if marked as content namespaces, will also show in random page results.
Some pages, such as redirects, are not included, and the results are not strictly random.
Random pages in specific namespaces[]
You can also choose to view random pages in specific namespaces.
To create a link to a random page in a specific namespace, use [[Special:Random/namespace name]]. For example:
- Special:Random/User will take you to a page in the User namespace.
- Special:Random/File will take you to a page in the File namespace.
- Special:Random/File talk will take you to a page in the File talk namespace.
- Special:Random/MediaWiki will take you to a page in the MediaWiki namespace.
- Special:Random/Template will take you to a page in the Template namespace.
- Special:Random/Template talk will take you to a page in the Template talk namespace.
- Special:Random/Category will take you to a page in the Category namespace.
- Special:Random/Category talk will take you to a page in the Category talk namespace.
If you have custom namespaces on your community, you can also view random pages in those namespaces by linking to them in the same way.
If there are no pages in a namespace, the random page will take you to the main page of the community instead.
Note: "Project" can generally be used as a redirect to the Project namespace.
Random pages in a category[]
You can also use Special:RandomInCategory to get a random page in a specific category.
Placing a specific category in the URL will let you pick a random page from that category. For example, Special:RandomInCategory/Help will pick a random page in the 'Help' category.
Further help and feedback[]
- Browse and search other help pages at Help:Contents
- Check Fandom Community Central for sources of further help and support
- Check Contacting Fandom for how to report any errors or unclear steps in this article