730,000 users is a significant number of sites, even if it is a small percentage of the total. Security updates are critical, other updates less so. I can see cutting back somewhat, but this is not something I would expect to be doing routinely every year—maybe every 5 years? You professionals work at the speed of software; we amateurs struggle to keep up with the pace of new releases as it is. Honestly, if it were not for the WordPress-based businesses, would we really need a new theme every year? Wouldn’t every other year work as well for most clients? I agree that sites using very old themes—I am thinking of my own—well, my former group, GetFISARight’s—blog from 2008, getfisaright.wordpress.org, which is still alive though it rarely gets updates—maybe once a year I will see a privacy issue worth documenting there, a potential for sunsetting part of the PATRIOT Act that we fought back in the day, etc., and will post someone’s call to action—but it does have historic value, it was one of the first grassroots political blogs. (We were part of a successful effort to get 100,000 signatures on the White House Q&A site that Pres. Obama initiated, and did get a letter in response [though not the policy changes we wanted, of course!]) Will I be able to update to a current theme? Would it be worth my time, or is it better to retain the site as a semiactive archive? More questions than answers here, I guess—mostly a reminder that it is not always all about keeping up with the latest, and that not every site is about attracting people to become customers and buy things—sometimes it is about a cause, or self-expression, or any number of other reasons for creating an Internet presence.