I've been searching for the right solution and looking at about a billion CMS systems out there. XOOPS has made it as a finalist so I was just hoping someone could answer some of these questions. Thanks!

(I think I saw this as a module) is there a way to let users decide what group they want to be in on signup and automate the process?

Can I create custom forms that in turn populate a user's page? For instance, they type in their name, favorite food, a short bio and upload a picture via a friendly form. After that it can be reached by the public or them as a "mypage" type of thing where the visitor can see the picture, read the bio, maybe even download a file (like an MP3 or something).

It's ok if things need some customizing, I'm just trying to find a system that has strong Group integration and well enough designed that customizing isn't a total nightmare.Thanks!

Users deciding on groups? Not that I am aware of, but it is possible.

Custom forms? Not at present, but it is possible to rename the user field names (IIRC the constants are in xoopsroot/language/[yourlanguage]/user.php - if you don't need Yahoo or AIM etc. you can rename them there and it should carry over to the user profile)

Bio is already a field - click on a name in the "top posters" block on the right, and you'll see a profile page and you can then imagine, how it can look with some renaming of fields. (just rename the constants, don't go into changing the code or database fields, will most likely only mess things up )

Welcome to XOOPS, hope you enjoy your stay.

Also, if you wish more custom fields and user photos etc you can integrate XOOPS with the "Invision board" mod by Koudanshi. This module has an inbuilt option to bypass the XOOPS user profile. Invision board also has a facility where you can define extra user fields, and it now has a user "photo" upload facility for the user profile.

This module does overwrite some core files, so its wise to back up the originals first.