subreddit.random() throws BadRequest if not supported

[Levtastic]

Describe the Bug

Previously, if you called subreddit.random() on a subreddit which didn't support it, praw would simply return a None, as mentioned in the function docstring here:

praw/praw/models/reddit/subreddit.py

Lines 3214 to 3218 in 42f5236

	def random(self) -> praw.models.Submission | None:
	"""Return a random :class:`.Submission`.
	Returns ``None`` on subreddits that do not support the random feature. One
	example, at the time of writing, is r/wallpapers.

But the reddit api seems to have changed and now praw will throw a prawcore.BadRequest instead.

Desired Result

Either restore previous functionality of the function returning None, or update the documentation to reflect the new behaviour.

Code to reproduce the bug

reddit = Reddit(**secret_credentials)

subreddit = reddit.subreddit('politecats')
random_post = subreddit.random()  # throws a BadRequest

My code does not include sensitive credentials

• Yes, I have removed sensitive credentials from my code.

Relevant Logs

Traceback (most recent call last):                                                                                                                                          
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1498, in __call__                                                             
    return self.wsgi_app(environ, start_response)                                                                                                                           
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                           
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1476, in wsgi_app                                                             
    response = self.handle_exception(e)                                                                                                                                     
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                     
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 1473, in wsgi_app                                                             
    response = self.full_dispatch_request()                                                                                                                                 
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                 
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 882, in full_dispatch_request                                                 
    rv = self.handle_user_exception(e)                                                                                                                                      
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                      
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 880, in full_dispatch_request                                                 
    rv = self.dispatch_request()                                                                                                                                            
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                            
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\flask\app.py", line 865, in dispatch_request                                                      
    return self.ensure_sync(self.view_functions[rule.endpoint])(**view_args)  # type: ignore[no-any-return]                                                                 
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                 
  File "C:\Users\Lev\Documents\Mine\Code\Websites\Flask\Main Website\site-docker\website\blueprints\random_reddit_images\views.py", line 19, in get_random_image            
    post = get_random_image_post(subreddit)                                                                                                                                 
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                 
  File "C:\Users\Lev\Documents\Mine\Code\Websites\Flask\Main Website\site-docker\website\blueprints\random_reddit_images\views.py", line 25, in get_random_image_post       
    post = subreddit.random()                                                                                                                                               
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                               
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\models\reddit\subreddit.py", line 3230, in random                                            
    self._reddit.get(url, params={"unique": self._reddit._next_unique})                                                                                                     
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\util\deprecate_args.py", line 46, in wrapped                                                 
    return func(**dict(zip(_old_args, args)), **kwargs)                                                                                                                     
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                     
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\reddit.py", line 731, in get                                                                 
    return self._objectify_request(method="GET", params=params, path=path)                                                                                                  
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                  
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\reddit.py", line 514, in _objectify_request                                                  
    self.request(                                                                                                                                                           
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\util\deprecate_args.py", line 46, in wrapped                                                 
    return func(**dict(zip(_old_args, args)), **kwargs)                                                                                                                     
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                     
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\praw\reddit.py", line 963, in request                                                             
    return self._core.request(                                                                                                                                              
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                              
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\prawcore\sessions.py", line 328, in request                                                       
    return self._request_with_retries(                                                                                                                                      
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                      
  File "C:\Users\Lev\.virtualenvs\Main_Website-TkBe3dLq\Lib\site-packages\prawcore\sessions.py", line 267, in _request_with_retries                                         
    raise self.STATUS_EXCEPTIONS[response.status_code](response)                                                                                                            
prawcore.exceptions.BadRequest: received 400 HTTP response

This code has previously worked as intended

Yes

Operating System/Environment

Windows 10 and Linux raspberrypi 6.1.21

Python Version

3.12.4

PRAW Version

7.8.1

Links, references, and/or additional comments?

Subjectively, I also feel like subreddits that used to support .random() no longer do - it's possible that the reddit api has dropped the feature entirely (which would explain why the endpoint is now return a 400) but I have not checked this.

[LilSpazJoekp]

Unfortunately, Reddit has indeed dropped support for random(). This will be removed from PRAW soon.