The short question is: Can we deactivate and delete a site template when a site created from that template still exists?
Some background: We often have a situation where we need to make several similar sites more or less at once, then no more new sites of that type. What we have done in the past is to make a site template, then use that to make the other similar sites. Now we would like to clean up our templates, but are worried that this could break the sites that were based on the templates. Stories like this add to our concern:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9386287/sharepoint-2010-deleted-a-custom-site-template-now-some-sites-are-messed-up
However, this site claims that it should be fine:
http://community.corasworks.net/blogs.aspx?CWFrameSource=http://community.corasworks.net/blogs/AdamMacaulay/archive/2010/02/05/implementing-user-solutions-on-sharepoint-2010.aspx
What is the best way to handle this? And if we can't delete a template in use, what is the recommended method to achieve our goals above?
Thanks for your help.