Deciding How to Make Sub Groups, in Organic Groups, With and/or Without the Sub-Groups Module, or Other Ways?

Synopsis: In short, I am looking for a means for any user to come to my site, and create and manage a group, which is about their subgroups, which they also create and manage under their top group. In the subgroups they will have various content types and content, and members they can manage and some content and content types I will manage globally.

It should be easy for them. And, it should not involve me as site master having to do much, actually preferably anything for them to do this, other than just routine maintenance. Or at least as little as possible.

I have studied a number of possibilities from Sugroups to OG+taxonomies(I guess) (I suppose just taxonomies is possible) to CiviCRM, and others but there are issues and questions I don’t have the experience to find answers for. See full version for these. I don’t really have coding skills. What is the right direction? I appreciate it. Thanks.

This is a side suggestion from a beginner's perspective for whoever wants to know. I would like to see comparisons tables for Drupal issues like these which might have several solutions, so beginners can make reasonable choices, with say with a Beginner to Advanced scale on top and then various methods or choices like mine listed on the left with pro and con issues and alternatives to consider in the middle. It would sure make it easier and faster for beginners to get through the learning curve, than to have to read through so many posts and guides. There are so many choice possibilities, some relevant and some not, that it seems logical to have a way to help guide people through them.

=================================
===================================
Full Version of Post:
I found several possible ways to create sub groups in Organic Groups, with and without using the Sub-Groups Module, but I haven’t decided which way to go. I am not sure which choice is best, being an inexperienced amateur would-be web site builder, learning Drupal 7, currently reading the Definitive Guide to Drupal 7 and Drupal site posts for answers.

My site requirements are at the bottom but here are the choices of methods and my decision issues:

Choice Method 1) The first possible choice is by using the Sub-Groups module.
The Decision Issues: Method 1 (Using the Sub-Groups Module)
- Has bells and whistles
- I hear people saying there is not enough documentation.
- Also, my main concern is that I noticed the newest release 7.x-2.0-alpha1 is an alpha release and I read that these are still be pretty buggy. This subgroup thing is critical to my site mission and I'm too new at this to deal with bugs. Though, eventually it will be beta and then a regular release. Am I being too paranoid about an alpha release?

Here is an example of some of the reviews I find. Although this one is fairly old, D6, it seems typical of comments about it, and as a beginner, I liked that they said it should be in the core, as that would solve my problem. http://drupalmodules.com/module/subgroups-for-organic-groups

” In need of a new life - Echoing a previous review - this is an essential function to have in OG's - we need sub-groups. Whilst OG pledge to be ready for D7 this module is still in beta on D6.14 - The only activity that appears to happen is a debate about how to implement a hierarchy. Until there is a reliable and active means of implementing subgroups, and preferably one that is core to OG - we'll continue to use taxonomy access control.

The low ratings reflect the level of readiness in D6 - if using D5 the ratings would be high - it really is needed. Review by thetechnaddict [info] on October 14, 2009 - 12:18 "

I wonder if I could go without the module first and add it when it is out of alpha and beta release?
Or is that asking for big trouble?

Choice Method 2) I found was on this post.
I'll call it the (Two Content Types Method without the Sub-Group Module)

http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/40835/need-groups-within-a-group
Need groups within a group
" I need to create a website with a single group, and create groups within that group. Is this possible in Organic Groups? asked Aug 26 '12 at 1:42 by EGHDK"

Response by Pontius Nilsson:
"I did this by having two content types. Let's call the first content type country and the second city.
Country was set to be a group type but not group content. City was set to be both a group type and group content.

In Panels / Views it was easy to show cities within the country (by having the country as contextual filter) etc.
In my case this way was enough to build an hierarchy of groups. I haven't checkout out the Subgroups module. Hope this gives you another angle to attack the problem."
----------------------------------------------------------------
That was helpful.

The Decision Issues: Method 2 (Two Content Types Method without the Sub-Group Module)
- It seems easy, and since it is OG and not an alpha release module it seems much more stable.

- But maybe it does not offer the bells and whistles of using the Sub-Groups Module.

- I've seen this hinted at in The Definitive Guide and elsewhere but they don’t say what to do or how to continue or proceed afterwards.

- How would user visitors use this to create their group and a layer of subgroups they can manage underneath, which is what I am looking for?

Then, I also ran across a couple of other possible choices in a Drupal rewrite discussion group, which was interesting but to tell the truth was mostly over my head, and was in 2008 so it is pretty old.
Subgroups for Organic Groups Rewrite https://groups.drupal.org/node/10070

Choice Method 3) Using Taxonomy to create hierarchies and sub groups.
I keep reading about taxonomy and I know "Taxonomies are groups of terms/tags that can be used to organize categories of content." but … as of yet … I am not doing well with getting a good grasp of using it.
How would users create their own groups with Taxonomies?

It is absolutely critical that visitors easily create their own group/pages and then add content and I will add some content type globally, but it would be nice if they could turn some on or off. Is this an option?

Choice Method 4) I also read a lot about CiviCRM from their web site book, http://book.civicrm.org/user/current/organising-your-data/groups-and-tags/, which is very intriguing. Except, it seems to me it is more for a single organization, and its groups are more about its constituents or constituent groups. And, I don’t get the sense that these groups are meant to be managed by the visitors, which is what I need, but are for the benefit of the organization, that owns the particular CiviCRM site or installation. The groups are set up for needs of the website owners, and what I want, which is that a user visitor could set up a group and then have sub groups that they manage. It might be too powerful and confusing for my needs anyway.

They did point out my problem though saying… "Groups and tags are two key methods of organising data in CiviCRM. When used properly, both allow for powerful segmentation and searching of your database.
Since both groups and tags are methods of categorization, it can be difficult to determine whether a tag or a group is more appropriate in a given situation. Identifying the differences in their functionality will help you to decide which to use. … "

Choice Method 5) I also read about Hierarchical Select Module at http://wimleers.com/demo/hierarchical-select but they said it isn't good till it is part of core.

Choice Method 6) I also read about someone mention the use of Books nodes which is part of the Drupal Core. But there wasn't much on it. I think maybe version 6 used it somehow?

Choice Method 7) Is there some other way?

=========================================
My Site Case:

For myself, I want to make a site with this scenario:
[(many many groups, top levels, People) with each of those groups having (several sub groups within, and hold other content types, some content managed by group manager/admin and some by myself as site wide manager) ]

Example: Groups could be A B C D E F G … with sub groups A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6… B7 B8… C9,C10,C11,C12,C13… D14 E15, E16 … and so on indefinitely. Each subgroup could have 5 o6 six pieces of content types or page views.

Each sub group is independent of the others like separate mini sites managed by the creator. I think two levels of hierarchy is fine, but maybe the possibility of more wouldn’t hurt and might be useful, if I thought about it.

I want each casual visitor user, to be able to easily sign up to the site and create their own particular group, as group manger or admin for their group/page, of the (many many groups, top level) variety, and then, again, to be able to easily, create, set up, administer and manage their own sub groups/pages/permissions/content from inside their top group.

Then, other users can register on these subgroups to be members of the sub groups pages. (as well as on the site at large.) They could also be a member of the top group page. I'd have to think about how many places they have to register and permissions.

I also want top group admins/ group managers to be able to add some group manager content types, like articles, or maybe manage an open forum for their members, and a method or two to have private conversations between the sub group admin and their authenticated visitors (to their groups), which these group managers can administer.

Then I also want, myself personally, as the whole site admin, to be able to add content types which only I can administer and manage, perhaps like advertisements or site wide content and content types.

Question? "Easy" is critical for the users. I don’t have a clue how to make it easy for my casual visitors to set up their own group and subgroups with either method. Will they essentially have to do the same thing I have to do to create these groups? I think I might have seen something somewhere that said this is taken care of, by O G, but I probably just need more research. Is this correct?

Final decision?
I thank you in advance, but, given my requirements and concerns, what would be the best way to go, and what other related advice might you offer?