That's fine. I was just curious, of course. OTR/DH has been up for 7 1/2 years now, so we've had our share of affiliates...and quite a few have broken ties with previous sites not only for their own good, but to damage another. I didn't see any indication of that going on, though, but I had to ask. Honestly, if you want a tip, I would cool off on the affiliates right now. Rake in your members, establish yourself on a social network(s), and take another month to do that. Then, start searching for smaller message boards that are on life support, maybe even asking for a merger (we've never merged with anyone, but it seems to be effective), or tackling HN before anyone else as far as affiliates go. Your first big one should be HN, anyway, since your community is most familiar with them. I won't name the two sites I'm thinking about, but they rushed into affiliations before, and now, neither of them are around. Instead of gaining members, linking back to the more established site brought less in and sent FAR more out.