AstroSkipper

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.

Such considerations are purely theoretical. Up until the end of 2025, I always programmed, modified and fixed everything manually myself. Since the start of 2026, and although I have always had serious reservations, I have moved on from being an ‘one-man band’ and, despite my ‘old-school’ tendencies and my dinosaur-like behaviour, have incorporated an AI. I now programme in collaboration with this AI. But only under clearly defined rules. I have set up templates and strict rules that we work by. I am now very experienced in dealing with this kind of AI and am aware of the dangers that come with it. Rules get broken, templates aren’t processed correctly, and the wildest hallucinations occur. I notice this and intervene immediately. And I do so ruthlessly. I don’t let anything slip through. This effort takes a lot of time. And I am now certain that it is impossible for Google to control its many AI assistants and the information they provide. Anyone who blindly trusts an AI and is unable to recognise hallucinations and distinguish them from reality should steer well clear of it. As for MSFN, however, like many other websites, it is reliant on Google & Co, as they unfortunately dominate the market and are used by most people. New visitors or members will no longer be able to find MSFN, and this forum will become an isolated community. Advertising partners will also pull out, as a zero ranking on Google & Co is a no-go in today’s IT industry.

And that is precisely the problem. AI feeds AI, which feeds AI, and so on. And what do we end up with? Rubbish and misinformation, as far as search engines are concerned. I’m not talking about targeted, controlled AI applications. Google and the like have lost the battle and control.

Apart from my attempt to present everything as realistically and objectively as possible, there will certainly be no acquittal for Google, Bing and their lackeys. Google is increasingly relying on pre-programmed filters and AI technology, which can only spell disaster for the world of information. There is no longer any real verification of whether something is right or wrong. It’s all about cost-cutting, profit maximisation, money, power and influence. A conscience and a sense of responsibility for the preservation of knowledge have long since disappeared. We’re just being inundated with rubbish. Whenever I’ve searched for something on Google in recent years, I’ve found it extremely difficult to come across anything relevant. It used to be quite different. Google Search, Bing and the even more pathetic slave machines are, as far as I’m concerned, dead and buried. I want to be informed, not dumbed down.

Very selfless and noble of you. Former captain Schettino should have taken a leaf out of your book.

Yes, unfortunately I had to come to that conclusion, because there’s no getting round the fact that those links contain that damn Thai/Siamese text. Something invisible is coming from MSFN, and the administrator @xper must have neglected important security updates, security settings, malware scans, profile clean-ups, and so on. That aside, whilst creating this thread, I realised that the forum software is absolutely buggy and is still making the same mistakes it has been for what feels like ages. Nothing has been fixed or properly maintained here for a long time.

Right, I’ve calmed down now and am trying to take a fresh look at the whole situation and assess it. At first, I thought Google was mainly to blame. @NotHereToPlayGames believes that the owner and administrator @xper are solely to blame. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Here is an alternative perspective on the whole matter from a very special source whom I am inclined to trust. I will not answer any questions about the nature of this source. It enjoys incognito status. So, believe it or not. The cause: The "Japanese Keyword Hack" (or SEO spam injection) The fact that Google search results display Thai characters or Asian text, even though the actual page is in English, is due to a security vulnerability in the forum software that was exploited by automated spam bots. In professional circles, this is usually referred to as the "Japanese/Thai Keyword Hack". 1. What the spammers did Automated bots exploited a vulnerability on MSFN (often via the internal search function, registration pages or by generating thousands of fake profiles/posts). Unnoticed in the background, so to speak "invisible", they generated millions of artificial, low-quality URLs on MSFN, which were crammed with Thai terms, casino links, dubious diet pills or counterfeit branded products. 2. What Google did during the Core Update Google crawled these hidden spam pages. As a Core Update re-evaluates the entire index, the algorithm noticed the sheer volume of this Thai spam content on MSFN. As these generated spam pages were highly optimised for the Google bot, the algorithm mistakenly assumed that the main topic or main language of certain forum sections was now suddenly Thai. In the search results, Google then mixes the page’s actual title with the injected Thai keywords from the cache, which is why the links look so strangely masked to you. 3. The consequence: Classification as a spam farm Because the Google bot suddenly found millions of pieces of Thai spam content on MSFN, the algorithm pulled the emergency brake. Google classifies the domain at this point as "hacked" or "abused for spam". This leads to an automatic, algorithmic (or sometimes manual) block and a massive wave of de-indexing. In doing so, Google protects its users from suspected malware. Summary for clarification There is no malicious intent on Google’s part: Google does not “think” like a human. The bot simply sees: “Suddenly, 80% of all pages on this domain are Thai spam – so the entire domain is corrupted.” It is not the intention of MSFN: The MSFN administration hasn't done much wrong; it has simply fallen victim to an aggressive, automated wave of hacking that exploited a technical vulnerability in the forum software to carry out illegal SEO sinking. In practical terms, this means: Only once the MSFN administration, @xper and @Tripredacus, has completely removed all these fake URLs, profiles and injections from the server, closed the security loophole and sent a clean re-review request to Google via Search Console will the Thai characters disappear and the site slowly recover its position in the index.

And here is another example to demonstrate what Google has done with their index: For years, the ProxHTTPSProxy and HTTPSProxy thread has ranked number 1 in Google for the search term "httpsproxy windows xp", as it still does for Mojeek and Brave only at the moment. Zero results which means Google doesn't even know me anymore and technical knowledge is withheld from users of this search engine. To hell with Google Search! Complete de-indexing, as with everything else. Just an example!

@nicolaasjan Thanks for your contribution! And that’s exactly how I’d describe the rubbish that Google, Bing and their lackeys spew out. And you're absolutely right, Copilot is clearly hallucinating. And I know why. It's from Microsoft. What else can Copilot do but hallucinate? Surely he won’t spoil his creator’s mood and betray him.

Here is a screenshot taken from Bing with the search term "msfn.org": Sorry, I can't see any notable difference to Google's search results. Bing uses the same filters as Google, according to an internal source. Bing (Microsoft) is a pathetic copycat of Google and can’t seem to come up with anything of its own.

Yep, since 21 May 2026, Brave is my new default search engine. And if it manages to find D.Draker as well, then the Frisian will give extra points from Germany!

@deomsh A big thank you from Germany to you too for your confirmation!

@modnar Thanks for your confirmation! It doesn't really matter whether you use Startpage or DuckDuckGo instead of Google. They are all slave search engines which get their results from Google or Bing. Google is the actual monopolist, Bing is desperately trying to keep up, whilst the others are taking advantage of both. That is the big problem when there is practically no competition left. Monopolies always spell disaster. I have to say, I really admire the two larger search engines that are still around and have managed to carve out their own niche: Brave and Mojeek. At least, for now.

Yep, all search engines depending on Google or Bing are affected:

Thank you very much for your confirmation! Even in Hong Kong, there are only Thai/Siamese search results, indicating that MSFN is considered a spammer site when using Google Search! This is definitely a worldwide disaster. MSFN is currently completely stuck in the digital gulag all over the world, when it comes to search results for it on Google, Bing and their d*a*m*n slave search engines.

@VistaLover, what about Greece? @roytam1, what about Hong Kong? @nicolaasjan, what about Netherlands? @modnar, what about Slovenia? @raddy, what about Ukraine? @reboot12, what about Poland? @RamonUn, what about Italy? @dmiranda, what about Argentina? @billmcct, what about your location in the United States? @LordGarfio, what about Spain? and so on ...

@NotHereToPlayGames I am aware of that but this topic is about MSFN and its lack of results in search engines. As usual, you are going totally off-topic. Try to focus on this topic here! I’m a mathematician and I’m all about facts, analysis and solutions. The idea of this thread is to collect data about this devastating issue, identify the causes and ask the owner/administrator @xper and the supervisor @Tripredacus to look into the matter and then act.

And today the same, 20 replies and 0 views: The "views" used to always work. @Tripredacus Or did you deliberately turn it off so it wouldn't count anymore? Anyway, what's going on here?

I see the whole thing in a much more differenced way. As long as the forum presents technical solutions – and ours is full of them, with new ones still being produced – it isn’t dead. But I do agree with you in that the vast majority of the supposedly over 60,000 members are no longer active here. And most of them are passive, simply benefiting from those who still contribute genuine content.

Dito!

The problem is that this is not the usual way users are searching for contents. They put their search string into the form, mostly unrelated to our forum, and perform a search. Since 21 May 2026, they won't land here on MSFN anymore if using Google, Bing or their slave engines.

What are your results when you try the search string "MSFN Windows XP"?

@EliraFriesnan Thanks for your information and posting! But what about Google, Bing and their slaves? 🤔 Are you also affected? And as for Mojeek, at least our forum is still recognised by this British search engine at all and, above all, Mojeek is one of the last independent search engines or maybe indeed the last one.

Today, I have opened a new topic called "MSFN and its lack of search results in Google, Bing, and all search engines depending on them". Now, there are 4 replies but 0 views. Here is a screenshot about this well-known issue: And this means nothing has been resolved for months. The forum software is buggy or no longer maintained. And BTW, the forum editor is also very buggy, and the statistics on the main site is completely outdated and no longer current. So, a lot has to be fixed by @xper and @Tripredacus.