Groups and Categories

If you click 'questions by category', that enables you to narrow your search to that which interests you. You should have seen AnswerBag a few years ago...It had a zillion categories. Welcome.

All questions will show up under the questions page with the exceptions of those posted in groups and those posted in statements and Rosie's Corner those will show up on the statements page. 
The Categories help users find questions they are interested in.

I don't think there is much action in the groups.

I see no reason to have categories.  I'm told some people only look at questions in certain categories.  We have such a low number of questions asked, that seems unlikely.  But.

not sure how theyre showing up

Element and M2C explained it well.

The gist is, we're a Q&A site. That's why the site was created in the first place. Although we have no affiliation with it, this site was created as sort of a spin off of Answer Bag; created by and run by former members from there. Ergo, the other additions to the site, such as groups and blogs, don't really have anything to do with the core features and why the first members were here. When AB shut down, those other features remained mostly dormant. The only thing that really got any use beyond the main Q&A was the adult Q&A, and that was purely because it served a Q&A purpose that couldn't be achieved by the main section- not without alienating many of the members.

It wasn't until Experience Project closed that we got a flood of members who weren't accustomed to the Q&A format here. We attempted to carve out a niche for them by expanding the groups based on their preferences and adding a section for statements. The latter was mostly because EPeeps didn't "get" Q&A. It wasn't their thing. They were used to just making general remarks and having people weigh in. The Q&A diehards weren't having that. Based on how we were set up, all the statements needed to be deleted, which sucked. And, we genuinely couldn't retrain thousands of newcomers all at once. They came here and tried to keep doing what they had been. So, making the statements category and enhancing the groups was really the only thing we could do to try to make it more like the home they knew in a way that wouldn't rub our existing members the wrong way. 

But, obviously, we weren't another EP. We didn't really want to be either. We had our own thing going for us. So, when another site more like EP opened up, a lot of people geared toward those group hubs and statements went there. A great many stayed, but those were the people who had already put down roots and adapted. Ergo, the sections the EPers used dried up when they moved again. I've considered removing many of the groups altogether, but I also feel bad doing that because there are real contributions there. People sharing. It doesn't feel right to remove that despite the fact that they're not active anymore. 

In any case, if you're looking for a full picture of everything in one place, you'll need to use the activity feed. That's your home page; the one you get to by clicking the logo. If you're a member of the adult subnetwork, adult content will show up there too, as will other groups, statements, blogs, and so on. 

Q&A has its own list that essentially culls out all other content. That's necessary for all the Q&A enthusiasts; the people who made this site what it is. It's absolutely necessary to have it split out for them. The individual categories therein do get used by some people; those who have a specific interest or area of knowledge, though all the Q&A categories do show up on the main Q&A list for those who aren't particular about what types of questions they're answering. 

With the activity feed being what it is, there's really no immediate need to lump things together in another way- not that I can think of. It may not be intuitive to newcomers depending on what they're looking for. If we ever do a full redesign, it will likely be done slightly differently. It's current "look" is more a reflection of the way the site grew and how the user base changed how it was used. Some features were indeed afterthoughts. That being said, we're not in a position to do any major changes right now, so the site will remain as-is for the foreseeable future. Kind of like the kid who goes out in mismatched socks, a polka-dot shirt, and striped pants. You either love it in spite of its oddities or you ponder where in the heck its parents are. ;)