Changes since last version:

• exclusion of invisible quotes from stray-all shortcode’s output when using multiple categories;
• fixed corrupted character encoding in search box on “Manage” page after search request submission (affected accented, Cyrillic and other “non-A-Z” letters);
• fixed a couple of initialization issues producing PHP notices.

To get the latest version of the plugin, use the download link in the main article.

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.

A couple of teacups later I figured out what was causing the issue. In the old wp-settings.php file there was this line of code forcing $_REQUEST to be $_GET + $_POST:

$_REQUEST = array_merge($_GET, $_POST);

In the old version it was closer to the beginning of the file, on line 51, but somewhere between versions 2.8.5 and 2.9.1 it was moved to line 637. Right after this part:

$_GET    = add_magic_quotes($_GET   );
$_POST   = add_magic_quotes($_POST  );
$_COOKIE = add_magic_quotes($_COOKIE);
$_SERVER = add_magic_quotes($_SERVER);

Stray Quotes uses $_REQUEST to process submitted data. There we go.

I’m sure the folks at WordPress had their reasons for such a change (that’s why I’m calling it an “issue” and not a “problem”), it’s just that I can’t help wondering how many plugins (or even parts of the core) were affected by it. Last week, I was setting up a NextGEN Gallery on another — fresh — installation of WordPress 2.9.1, and watched the same behavior when filling in photo captions. I admit I didn’t look into it then, but today I got suspicious all right.

Now, I reckon you want a solution… Sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t give you one. Not a quick one, at least.

What about writing to support guys, you’re probably asking yourself now? Don’t. I really doubt that this change can (or should, for that matter) be reversed in future versions of WordPress. Like I said, there must have been a reason for it.

So I’d say the best thing you can do is to figure out which plugins among those installed on your system(s) are affected, and contact their developers with either the information on the issue or, if you can, an implementation of the fix. And wait for updates.

Just please don’t go hack the core!