As for the separate forums; I just hit "new posts" at the top and read everything.
Don't care where it comes from. I know it's a sweeping statement, but I find in any forums I am part of, the US members are more "chatty", and so you tend to get along with them more.
I am part of loads of forums, the only one I am glad to see the back of is crackberry.com - there's a poster on there who just pops up all the time and replies with some silly remark to almost every post. She pisses me off. Never any proper advice/feedback - just cocky remarks.
Anyway - almost zero-hour for the yanks!