hmmm... as for trying to attract more english speakers to 4-ch (specifically americans and canadians), cultural differences obviously play a large role... i think that americans dont typically like the anonymous aspect as much as many japanese do-- americans are generally more individualistic and less worried about saving-face... so the complete anonymous factor just really doesnt translate well for american audiences.

also, americans obviously like asking questions and looking up answers... otherwise Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers wouldnt be as popular as they are. so its not as though americans are uninterested in learning new things and exploring topics on the net...

personally, i always have found japanese websites to be wordy and ugly. 2-ch is an ugly site. and 4-ch is too... it reminds me of windows 3.1... outdated and blah. while i realize thats not the point of a forum like this, i think that the way a website looks really affects how popular it will become with americans. i think americans like the flashier websites that additionally have more networking capabilities. in general, perhaps they really like more visual characteristics-- pictures of people, avatars, signatures, videos of funny things, cat macros... whatever! for example, yahoo answers has personalized avatars, screen names, a point system to show off your status... etc. these are all things most americans value in a website.

also the topics here on 4-ch prove that it's really only for people who are interested in japanese culture-- so, being that this site was made by densha otoko fans, it's going to be biased and appeal mostly only to other densha otoko fans. Maybe this isn't even what people want, but in order to get 4-ch to become a commonplace website in American homes, it certainly needs to be ran and moderated by people interested in things that don't include anime, manga, otaku lifestyle, etc. not that these things are bad, they certainly belong here, but it really just doesn't appeal to anybody but a very very very very small proportion of Americans (although it is certainly a growing number).

anyway, i certainly see why this site is not going to catch on here in the states-- after watching densha otoko, i was excited to see if 4-ch was anything like 2-ch. but, while i'm disappointed, it really is to be expected!

basically, i guess for 4-ch to be popular with americans, it really has to be geared towards what americans like. that seems pretty simple huh?

hope my 2 cents helps!