Did Markus Frind kill the most popular Forum in the World?

I find it interesting to watch the biggest sites in the world do what they do.  Study them, listen to what the end users have to say and keep an eye on the trends that they set.  This means look at the options each of the sites have and what they choose to add or remove from the site.

The first item to get killed off recently by Frind, owner of POF, was the Interplane Instant Messenger, which is marketed to sites by AOL.  Frind used the excuse that "...the company who runs it is discontinuing it..." which couldn't be further from the truth.  In fact, Interplane is still a very viable, while poorly designed, IM Tool for sites to run and they will be happy to help you install it on their site.  So, what happened?  Did the cost of this item become to much for Frind in the current economic situation as his site grew?  He had no ability to run ads on it, it generated on it's own absolutely no revenue.

Next up, on March 29, 2010, Frind chose to remove from his site all links directly to the Plenty of Fish Forums.  Now, users must do a google search or check their history to maneuver into the forums.  While they are still there, it is evident that they are down in usage.  Frind will argue that in his mind the forums on his site are useless as they have no ads on them and are frequented by less than 5% of the sites actual visitors.  Has this had an effect on POF?

Looking through the forums, they are still being frequented by users, but it is evident at the rate that new threads are created and current threads develop that they are not frequented like they were.  Is this a tactic by Frind, who claims that he wrote every line of code for POF (we know he didn't, bonus points to anyone that can tell what CMS he is using for the main site and for the forums) to reduce the cost of his servers?  If  he can manage to shut his forums down by simply removing the menu links and letting them die on their own he will effectively alienate an alleged 5% of his user base that will still use the site for dating purposes.

Frind states that he saw an increase in traffic with the removal of the Interplane Instant Messenger, though it baffles me how this can be in this world of instant gratification and responses.  All competitors in the market are still running IM's and I can't really list any that don't operate some type of forum also.  So is this a tactic by Frind to increase Net Revenue by cutting Gross Costs on bandwidth, processor and so on?  He states in the rare posts that he makes the site is undergoing transformation and he's looking for a place to put the forums link, but 2 weeks is more than enough time to find a spot in the menu to put a simple link.

I find it interesting that Frind has built the largest Free Online Dating Site while lieing to his member base about coding it all on his own, 100% and even when confronted with proof just ignores and users remain.  He then steps up to the plate and begins to charge for a gold star and the title "Serious Member" while reducing options on the site.  Yes, he removed the IM after he began charging people for it, offers no real value beyond the Gold Star, Serious Member title and the ability to upload 8 more photos to your profile for a total of 16.

We recently argued about Fake Profiles, here is a site that was built 100% on falsehoods and has moved into the number one slot.  It is effectively removing site options on a regular basis while increasing the Ads placed on the site and charging for what used to be free.  It has even taken the route of charging to send photos of Voo Doo dolls to other members and forcing the recipient to keep the doll on their profile whether they want it or not.

Has the day come that the sites with the most toys no longer win?  Are the end users stating that they would prefer basic old school sites in comparison to the new high tech sites that we all build?  Will POF actually survive the steps it's taking or is it literally about to go under as it's owner does whatever he chooses and ignores what the users vocalize that they want?