i decided to experiment with the 3-column layout again, because i am finding the group pages not easy to navigate. so i've tried putting group-specific things on the right-hand side in the magnetics group again to see if it's better.
i don't like the "river-of-news" layout for the group home pages; i think it's better to have a more static page & perhaps links to things like recent group posts, rather than having them all there on the page. it feels too cluttered.
also the group navigation is really annoying me - this long list of "create ... " i have tried to find where to change this but i can't. it should be like the "my account" navigation, with "create content" at the top level & drilling down to the different ones.