Have you talked to the mods about any of these instances?

Generally (especially due to the Coronavirus isolation) some groups of friends will all decide to try out diplomacy and start playing some games together. This allows for friend groups to remain in touch and have fun together.

You can usually recognize these games with (as you said) the signup times for players, starting points, and the same games. Also if you look in the games, you'll usually see many unorthodox moves (since they're probably beginner players. For example (though I don't have a game attached): Moscow to Livonia Spring 1901 Classic (happened to me in person), then holds in Autumn 1901.

I even do this. My school (though I will not disclose it) has a Diplomacy club (like thing) and we'll usually play games on vdiplomacy since some people can't make it to the in-person meetings.

However, it's very important to not have players in games where there are other people (not people that you know). This breaks the No Metagaming rule (quoted from rules) "You cannot play a public game with players that you know outside of the site. In doing so, you create an unfair environment for other players..." (Rule 2)

Whenever I play a game with my friends, it is that. ONLY with my friends. If others want to play games with their friends, then they should make it password protected and only play with the people they know (or only agree publicly to make agreements via the game chats). Inviting people from the public breaks the Metagaming rule and creates unfair advantages and alliances.

Sorry for the long response/rant, it's just that I have experience in both sides of this argument.
Also please don't dox me (from games with friends)

Oh and addressing #4, that usually happens due to a single/multiple players become disinterested and going into Civil Disorder, thereby creating an unfair board (where one person dominates). This is actually happening with most of my current games.

Also, as Battalion has mentioned, if you feel that someone is breaking the metagaming rule and creating public games with friends, please message the mods with any instances.

Thanks for your response Pomerschen. That's kind of what I assumed was happening. I won't be calling any moderators. It's all a game and I don't care that much. I'm interested in hearing other players experiences with these situations.

Contact the moderators. Then, at least in theory, they will get explained to them that what they are doing is not allowed. They can have fun playing together, but they should make their own private game(s) for that. I am being kind to them by assuming they don't already know, for if you create a new account, it is made crystal clear what metagaming is and why it is not allowed.

As for my own experience, I once spectated a 36 player game and noticed that 1/3 of them were metas. I notified the moderators, but as far as I know, nothing happened, even though I later learned from reading global chat that I hadn't been the only one contacting them.

As stated above, please contact us if you have any serious concerns. We have several tools to check quite easily and reliably if people have contact outside this website.

As for the time to get a response in the mod forum: We try to have a glimpse at new cases as soon as they come up. But depending on the urgency it might take several days or even weeks to get a reply. After all this is a free time gaming website for the site moderation, as well. As a rule of thumb waiting for a reply for several days is usually a sign that the matter is not that serious and does not require immediate reaction. Concerning cheating questions, that is usually a good sign.
Also for the very large variants we are a bit more lenient concerning relations between players. It is hard enough to get 35+ committed players to get a such a game running. Further restrictions purely based on external relations would not help. However, if you observe any negative effect in such games like suspicious cooperation we will still take a look and restrict that of course.

If a group of friends did want to play together but didn't have enough of them for a decent variant (e.g. I'd quite like to play with two other friends) is there anything that can be done? On another site I once created a game with friends and strangers, and notified the mods that this was the case beforehand so they could make sure nothing untoward went down. Is that acceptable here?

For what it's worth (and I realise this does not apply to everyone and so isn't an argument for allowing it), my friends and I would be more likely to try to eliminate each other than help each other if we worked out who was who.

@Battalion,

To my understanding you can just tell everyone else in the game and promise not to have IRL contact about the game and that's enough. At least I would be willing to play with you. You could post in the forum asking for people willing to play with you and your friends and then send people the password.

Thanks uber, that sounds sensible!

Are you referring to this game: https://vdiplomacy.com/board.php?gameID=41925#gamePanel

Yes, there are people who know each other. This is also a bit of an exceptional case I feel since this is a test of a variant I made.

Yes that was the game that prompted me to write this post but I wasn't specifically talking about any one particular game. Its a phenomenon I've noticed several times in different games, mostly on another online diplomacy site that I used to play on. My post wasn't really meant as a "complaint" either. More like trying to get a discussion going and trying to understand more about the people who come to this website.