Ok, I found the option. You can only create new groups when you go to ADD a new user. I had imported everyone from an address book, so I didn't see it. It disabled my offline group, but I've now been able to get around that too by selecting an option to "hide offline" buddies - which now seems to show an offline group again without complaining.

So far so good. Though no one has been online since I installed it to check how it works in messaging. :) I'm just glad to get rid of the very poorly designed ICQ. Ugh.

Bruno