I\'m really glad to see someone who shares my views here. I really don\'t care for anime either (I\'ve always found it rather boring, personally), and I\'m not interested in Japan as most here seem to be. As for Japanese culture, I am thankful that I have been raised in an individualist society where everything isn\'t based on an \"us and them\" mentality. I really have no desire to conform to the ways of the majority; many of those who think of Japan as the anime fanatics do (a country of where pretty much everything sort of fringe behavior is acceptable) are really quite mistaken. These individuals would be suprised to know the extent of collectivist thought present in Japan.

Anyways, readers are probably wondering, by now, how I ended up here. First of all, I am an admirer of the Japanese 2-channel bbs. I consider anonymous bbs communication desireable as opposed to what is found on most forum systems (an identity based system in which posters often try to build their online-egos.)

Anyways, this site is quite far from what 2-channel is, but it does have the right idea. Ideally, an English language, anonymous bbs would be able to appeal to those with a variety of interests, but this site is clearly visited primarily by those who simply occasionally dabble in interests outside of anime. While 2-channel has huge numbers of posts in boards so specific as those related to the histories of different regions, the majority of posts here tend to, at least somewhat, relate to Japan. I find it rather odd that, on a forum frequented primarily by English speakers, so many posts on the entertainment related sections discuss Japanese media.

Basically, I believe that anonymous English language bbs systems such as 4-ch have potential for attracting some decent discussions, but that they will fail to do so until they provide some appeal to those other than anime fans and Japanophiles.