It works in the same way as WP_Query::query(), with (so far) one significant difference: it allows you to exclude password-protected posts (or include posts with a specific password, should you ever need anything like that).

Here’s the download link:

Randomized Post Loop  (version 0.1/17.04.2010, 5.17 KB)

Instructions inside.

Stray Quotes Z  (version 1.9.9.z3/22.05.2010, 287.89 KB)

The reason I forked it is the apparent “offlinety” of the author since July 2009: no new posts on his blog, no updates to his plugins, no replies to e-mails.

I do hope this is temporary. Meanwhile, I am using his plugin on several websites — with these improvements:

• simple search functionality (search on quote body by a single keyword or phrase);
• solution to the issue with escaping backslashes in WordPress 2.9;
• exclusion of invisible quotes from stray-all shortcode’s output when using multiple categories;
• fix of several small but annoying bugs producing “undefined constant/variable” notices in development environments.

Use the download link at the beginning of this article to get the adjusted version. It has not been uploaded to WordPress plugin repository, you will have to install it manually! Make sure to disable the original plugin first.

Please note that I am providing no guarantees, support or further by-request development of this plugin.