This sounds like a cool idea that solves a real problem, but I'm not convinced it will work. The main blocker for an article is getting the first two or three votes fast enough to get from the new page to the front page. If you look at my article on HN scoring [1], most successful articles shoot up quickly and then slowly drop, so randomization is mostly going to just put declining articles back on the front page for a bit, which doesn't really help the reader or articles.
To be effective, the randomization needs to be focused on newish articles. I like danmaz's idea of adding a random new article to the front page. Best would be combining ideas and using weighted randomness to add a new article to the front page, so a vote or two would boost an article's chance of getting the random slot.
(Another thing that would help is if the More link didn't time out after a couple minutes, so readers could go to the second page more reliably.)
To be effective, the randomization needs to be focused on newish articles. I like danmaz's idea of adding a random new article to the front page. Best would be combining ideas and using weighted randomness to add a new article to the front page, so a vote or two would boost an article's chance of getting the random slot.
(Another thing that would help is if the More link didn't time out after a couple minutes, so readers could go to the second page more reliably.)
[1] http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really...