This is a userscript (for Greasemonkey, Tampermonkey, etc.) for sorting answers to posts randomly, like so:

This feature was requested in connection with the Stack Overflow Fall 2015 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire.

To install the script, just click here. You can also view the source (a github gist) and install by clicking the "Raw" button.

Source:

// ==UserScript== // @name Stack Overflow Random Answer Sort Tab // @namespace https://github.com/edcottrell/ // @version 0.1.2 // @description Add a "random" tab for sorting Stack Overflow answers // @author Ed Cottrell // @license MIT // @match *://*.askubuntu.com/* // @match *://*.mathoverflow.net/* // @match *://*.serverfault.com/* // @match *://*.stackapps.com/* // @match *://*.stackexchange.com/* // @match *://*.stackoverflow.com/* // @match *://*.superuser.com/* // @exclude *://data.stackexchange.com/* // @exclude *://stackexchange.com/users/* // @grant none // ==/UserScript== // set up some variables var $answers = jQuery('div.answer'), arrayIndex, newOrder = [], prop, randomWeights = {}, relativeUrl = window.location.href.replace(/^.+\/\/.+?\//, '\/'), selectedTab = window.location.href.replace(/.+?answertab=([^&#]+).*/, '$1'), tabUrl = relativeUrl.replace(/([?&]answertab=)[^&#]+/, '$1random') ; // make sure the URL has an answertab parameter if (!tabUrl.match(/([?&]answertab=)[^&#]+/)) { tabUrl = (tabUrl + '?answertab=random').replace(/(\?.+)\?/, '$1&'); } // add a random sort tab jQuery('#tabs a[data-value="oldest"]').after('<a href="' + tabUrl + '" title="Random" data-value="random" data-nav-xhref="">random</a>'); if (selectedTab === 'random') { // fix the tab highlighting jQuery('.youarehere').removeClass('youarehere'); jQuery('a[title="Random"]').addClass('youarehere'); // give each answer a random "weight" for sorting $answers.each(function (x) { randomWeights[$(this).prop('id').replace(/answer-/, '')] = Math.random(); }); // sort the ids by weight for (prop in randomWeights) { newOrder.push(prop); } newOrder.sort( function(a,b) { return randomWeights[a] > randomWeights[b] ? 1 : (randomWeights[a] == randomWeights[b] ? 0 : -1); } ); // remove the anchor tags and answers and append them in the right order for (arrayIndex = 0; arrayIndex < newOrder.length; arrayIndex++) { $('a[name=' + newOrder[arrayIndex] + ']') .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); $('div#answer-' + newOrder[arrayIndex]) .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); } // reset locations of the non-answer elements of the #answers div $('#answers a[name="new-answer"]') .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); $('#post-form') .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); $('#show-editor-button') .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); $('#answers .bottom-notice') .detach() .appendTo('div#answers'); } 

Caution: This is poorly (barely) tested and may melt your browser or make kittens cry. More likely, it will just slightly slow down SE-network sites, but I make no promises.

Any feedback would be appreciated!