Well, about the avatar: It's really unfortunate that it's animated. I hide my friends list and I hide every comment on my page because so many profiles use animated avatars.
So it's not just the group, it's every single avatar that I don't want displayed on my front page. As you never know when one will start to move.
But then I do link to the groups I watch, using a text link. Those links were not in my most current journal, but I've just included them.