AstroSkipper

That’s not the point. I said that unlike February, it now can no longer be denied. I always express myself very precisely and would appreciate it if a native speaker like you would take the words at face value. This is starting to get on my nerves. Avoid any interpretations if possible! Facts are facts. Everything @xper and @Tripredacus said in March is now null and void. The MSFN servers are infected and therefore compromised with 100% statistical certainty.

There is a significant difference compared to February. We have proven here, unequivocally and beyond any doubt – with mathematical precision, so to speak – that the MSFN server has been compromised by malicious code. This can no longer be denied. Any attempt to deny this would be embarrassing and would call into question the server operator’s technical competence.

@NotHereToPlayGames We shouldn’t take ourselves – or MSFN – too seriously. We’re talking about a forum here, tragically classified by @xper for some time now as a ‘communication forum’, but which I and most others still regard as a 'technology forum', with no infrastructure attached to it, where people can seriously come to harm. Perhaps both are away on holiday or at work, but that can’t be the case forever, of course. And anyone stupid enough to fall for one of those Thai posts scams is beyond help.

Right! We'll have to wait some time. But this period will definitely come to an end, as the damage it is causing to MSFN is becoming increasingly severe.

@NotHereToPlayGames I would appreciate it if we could remain as objective as possible, even though I cannot understand the administrator/supervisor’s stance.

@nicolaasjan I'm currently trying to figure out why nothing is showing up with MojeekBot or Bravebot. It seems, however, that the malicious script or code on the MSFN server wherever it may be hiding isn't playing nice with Mojeek or Brave. And that is most likely why Mojeek and Brave don't really have any issues with MSFN at the moment. But maybe, the hackers will update their malware at some point, and then that will be the end of those two search engines, too, when it comes to search results regarding MSFN. And as things stand right now, they have all the time in the world, since the administrator @xper or supervisor @Tripredacus hasn't taken any action yet.

Same here. But I used the MojeekBot user agent Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MojeekBot/0.11; +https://www.mojeek.com/bot.html) And the Bravebot Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Bravebot/1.0; +https://search.brave.com/help/brave-search-crawler) behaves in the same way. I also tested again the Googlebot and the bingbot. And with these bots, you can clearly see the Thai/Siamese-contaminated MSFN sites caused by "Cloaking". Here is a screenshot when using the bingbot user agent:

Anyway, it depends entirely on the filters and bots used by Brave and Mojeek.

As you can see, I already did it first.

Ok. You're right. I can confirm these two Thai results. Perhaps the "Brave bot" behaves in the same way as the Google bot for these two results only. Just an assumption. I don't know how Brave exactly acts.

In your screenshot I cannot see either the search engine used or the search term entered. Such screenshots are unfortunately meaningless.

None of your search terms bring up any Thai results on Brave, at least here in Germany.

@deomsh A search engine can't find and show websites which weren't indexed before. This is usually the job of their automated web crawler.

I totally forgot to say: Very tricky! Good idea!

No idea! I’m just compiling facts, analyzing connections and drawing conclusions. And that doesn’t come particularly hard for me, as I’ve been doing nothing else for decades, and it’s second nature to me. Let’s hope he might still take action! I’ve never had any contact with @xper. To me, he’s always been a bit of a mystery.

It is precisely observations like these that are important and useful. Thank you, @nicolaasjan!

Ok. New theory. New topic views seem to be counted after two days, but then more frequently. I don't know if it is then real-time but here are new results: 70 replies and 985 views:

I can confirm that the forum software counts views of posts only periodically. What kind of periods I can't say. The first period, after creating the thread about "MSFN and its lack of search results in Google, Bing, and all search engines depending on them", was two days, but today, it updated the views twice with a distance of some hours. Now, there are 70 replies and 973 views:

I’ve been a Google user from the very beginning when their first search engine was released. And an Android user since 2014. Nothing Google has done is for the benefit of its customers or users; it serves only its own interests. And if there were a real alternative, I would have moved on long ago. The good thing is, I’m a very experienced Android user and can make up for a lot.

Google cares about Google. And nothing else. When they say that new optimisations have been performed, then they have minimised their costs and maximised their profit. Google doesn't really care about consumers or preserving knowledge for future generations.

If @xper or @Tripredacus can bring themselves to take my comments seriously and investigate the MSFN server, they must do so very thoroughly, as the infection is more or less hidden or invisible. In IT security, this phenomenon is known as "cloaking" (making content visible only to search engines) or shadow injection. Here is an attempt at a factual, technical explanation of why this Thai content was invisible to visitors in their browser: 1. The phenomenon of "cloaking" (the user-agent switch) The malware that has infected the forum checks the user agent (the visitor’s identifier) every time a page is loaded: If you, as a normal user, visit the site using a browser, the server sees: “Ah, a normal person.” The script ignores you and delivers the completely clean, familiar MSFN forum. You don’t see a single spam post. When the Google bot (Googlebot/2.1) visits the page, the malicious script recognises the identifier and switches over. It injects the Thai keywords, casino text and spam links into the HTML code specifically for this one bot. As the Google bot sees this, it stores it in its index. As a user, you won’t notice a thing until you search for MSFN via Google and wonder about the hieroglyphics. 2. Exploiting the internal search function (URL injection) Many forum software packages have a vulnerability in the way they process search queries. Bots send millions of specially crafted search queries containing Thai terms to MSFN. The forum then dynamically generates a page with the title: "Results for the search: [Thai casino link]" . The bots copy this generated URL and link to it en masse on dubious external websites. When Google follows these links, the bot lands on MSFN on a Thai results page (which exists for it) that never appears in normal forum operation or in the sub-forums. 3. Hidden system files (database level) Often, the attackers do not embed themselves in the visible text area of the threads, but instead modify a deep-level system file (such as the .htaccess file on the server or a core file of the forum software). This file intercepts the data stream and adds the Thai code in the background – but only if the request comes from a search engine. Conclusion: There’s no need to worry: the forum on MSFN that people use and love every day is clean in terms of its content. The database of genuine threads remains unaffected. This is a purely technical "parasite infestation" running in the background, specifically optimised to deceive the Google bot and exploit MSFN’s reputation (domain authority) for illegal advertising purposes. As the administration doesn’t see this malicious code during normal forum operations, it usually only comes to light when Google’s hammer strikes mercilessly in the wake of a core update.

Given that I am presenting the whole matter here in an objective and well-founded manner for the greater good, and that I cannot identify a single breach of the forum rules, a ban is neither lawful nor justifiable, unless complete arbitrariness is at play. I would be more inclined to receive a thank you for my efforts to save an important forum from ruin. Not to mention how much time I’ve already spent researching all this, tracking down sources, then spending hours writing it all up and posting it. And then there’s my guiding principle: Veritas saepe molesta, sed dicenda est. Nihil semper ad nihilum.

And then there is another crucial factor. What sort of impression does MSFN give when it presents itself as ‘MSFN = Microsoft Software Forum Network – Where people get to know’ and is regarded by all insiders as a top-tier technology forum, yet isn’t even capable of running a properly functioning server and is considered a spammer by most search engines?

Ok, I’m now in a position to pinpoint the error, bug or whatever setting has been set. After two days of zero views, today there’s a number other than zero: 55 replies and 694 views: It seems to be the case that the forum software counts views of posts only periodically. Of course, this is just a theory that has yet to be proven. I hope this might be helpful.

As far as I know, it is a slave of Bing (Microsoft) and far from being independent. Since 2009, Yahoo! partners with Bing and uses its search results.