Groups are one of the many features on this website, but perhaps one of the least used. This is not much of a surprise due to the fact that inviting, getting people to actually join, and using them in general, can be somewhat unwieldy. So from the standpoint of a regular user, and not a coder/administrator, I'd just like to suggest a few improvements regarding the accessibility and capabilities of groups.

1) Groups Icon. There is an icon on the main page. But it could be better placed in a user's 'My Zone' because groups are essentially more person-oriented as opposed to, say, the paint or games features.
2) Search groups. The Groups page lists the top 20 groups on the website, but offers no way to show the numerous other groups. The ability to search by keyword through all groups would allow users to look through groups of their choice, so leading to my next idea.
3) Requests. It's a bit of a hassle to ask around for joiners, then to invite each one individually. Allowing any user to request to join would quicken the process and accelerate group membership. Another little idea is to somehow notify the leader when a request is made.
4) Better member lists. For many groups, the member list can get pretty long--making it harder to get access to the Shoutbox area. Several solutions include a 'hide' option for the member list, placing the member list below the Shoutbox, or simplifying the list by making it smaller and only listing usernames.
5) List on user profiles. It'd be interesting to see what groups a user is included in on his/her profile page.
6) Group "alerts." Getting your group together is not easy. This might be fixed by providing a system that allows the leader to send out a universal message to each member.
7) Group requirements. Instead of manual reqs, there could be actual ones chosen by the leader--i.e. by rank, overlord status, etc.

Thanks for reading! That's all I came up with, but I'm sure there're more ideas out there.