For "more efficient" I think we need to find a way to reference
existing information in these groups. Someone once said that if you
search here, you find discussions, not knowledge - that is a large
problem. I know Google's webmaster support sections are growing all the
time ( http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ ) - but sometimes the
best answer is not an official one by Google. That's not meant in an
"evil" way, but sometimes things are not as black and white as an
official answer has to be ;-).

Also, to aid "findability", I would love to see basic SEO elements
added to the groups interface -- like page titles with post / thread
titles and clean h1-h3-tags for postings in a thread. One reason why is
because the information here is getting lost at a high rate - things
are disappearing, old "knowledge" is posted again and again, Google
confirmations are in one thread, the same question is in many others,
etc. If basic SEO elements were applied, it could mean that search
would be much more useful (not the groups-based search, but general
web-search which should include groups-postings). I don't know how much
it will help, but it will make a small difference (at least to me :-) -
I use search all the time).

I agree with all other wishes here -- Red Cardinal seems to have summed
it up nicely again. Pete's comment about newbie's also makes a lot of
sense. We need to make sure that the existing content does not scare
people away who are afraid to "ask a stupid question" but can't find an
answer.

I don't like the new interface either. I like it "plain, readable and
usable" :-). (oops, am I implying that the new interface isn't any of
that? <big smile>). I would absolutely love an edit-button, if only for
the first 10-30 minutes of a post. How many times do I post something
only to proofread it, lol.

John