In going from 1.7.6 to 1.7.7 and then to 1.7.8 ELGG has lost key features in setting up groups, in particular the possibility to add a description of the group.

In the way we use ELGG, groups serve (metaphorically) as geographical markers that map out territories for communities. Thy make sense of an otherwise undivided space. The whole building of a community around groups depends on the ability of users to identify the groups. By wiping out the group description the identifying of a group is much more difficult. The possibility existed in 1.7.6 but no longer existed in 1.7.7 or 1.7.8. Please put it back!

Seeing groups as places where a group of people work, when the work gets more complex it is not sufficient to have one blog and a discussion forum. Either a group has to span across several groups (which is awkward because it requires people to sign up for each of these groups) or a group has to be able to generate more blogs. In addition, there has to be some what to bundle together discussion threads into topics. The unmanageable complexity of this ELGG community's discussion thread is a graphic example of what I mean.

Alan.