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I have never tried for a group, for some of the "downside" reasons DPT outlined. I have found readers that enjoy my work, and aren't writers but avid fiction consumers. My rule for critique is basically that I need help finding errors or problems, so I am really hoping they can help point at parts that need improvement, and they don't need to praise anything, and they can't hurt my feelings. They still praise me and try not to hurt my feelings, I thank them and then ask what was the worst part? Does the sex scene make you wince? Any place where you wanted to skip ahead? Anything you had to read twice? Did the battle make sense and flow while you were reading it?

You have to work to pull critique out of some people, but I don't like advice on how to write from writers I don't think write very well. Not in person. I'd rather just hear from a consumer of fiction that recognizes bad writing when they read it, even if they don't know the mechanics of writing. I can figure it out from there.

On a site like this or SE, I can read advice and stop reading without telling anyone to stop talking, I can dismiss advice I find dumb, and because of that find some good advice on questions that I can use. But I'm not going sit for two hours to hear that, all while everybody else continues to make the same mistakes week after week.

An online group, maybe. I paid for help with my first query letter and synopsis, and I paid for professional critique of the first chapter of my first novel. I found those services extremely helpful, and professional.