What would be the best way of going about playing consultation games on OGS? I know there’s the Rengo feature, but it is implied that consultation is forbidden when using that mode. Or is there a community of people who play consultation games consistently?
Do you mean like team Go? Where each team can freely discuss the game among themselves?
Rengo implies no discussion, however, if you organize a group of players that all agree to playing a variant with discussion, beforehand, then that is fine. You could use the forums or chat to recruit participants.
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Yes, I suppose that’s what I mean. So is “Team Go” the common term used for a Go variant with free discussion? If we don’t find anyone who would take us up on Team Go, would it be bad form to play regular games using a new shared account and put in the title of the challenge a “Team Go” description? We don’t want to violate site guidelines.
Just be aware that descriptions are often ignored, and I wouldnt consider that an agreement.
still, if no one can tell you are two people rather than one, I don’t see much of a problem.
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Gotcha. I’m just rather wary of being any degree of duplicitous.
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I would really recommend recruiting agreeing players beforehand. People often ignore descriptions and even chat. Convincing people to play some way after the game has started might tricky and you might just wind up with people frustratingly quiting.
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Yep, I agree. It’s just tricky finding another team, is all. Especially for live games.
In Rengo, you can use the chat channel in the game-organisation pane to agree before the game starts.
As per the other thread, this should be fine for Casual rengo - go for it.
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Just to confirm that this is OK from a moderation perspective.
There is a slight practical hassle, which is that the pre-game chat disappears.
If you’ve agreed something in pre-game chat, please state it again in the game chat at the beginning, to avoid disputation later! 
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You can also create a group Consultation Go. This gives you the opportunity to explain the concept and also create Consultation Go Tournaments.
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Team game played here in the forum
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I’m appalled. You are sowing the destruction of casual rengo (maybe all rengo) with this bstardization of the game.
Casual rengo did not grow out of the idea of having a place to consult in a rengo game, and that has never happened in the casual rengo games I have played. It came about as a way to protect games where one or more people leave the game (honorably through resignation, or selfishly through timeout). It was a solution to the question of whether the clock should apply to the whole team or to individual players.
Hijacking rengo as a vehicle for consultation is wrong. The essence of rengo is the opposite of consultation, so this action will turn the game upside-down. The unique appeal of rengo is that the players must work with teammates of different strengths. This has spawned unique tactics to leverage the situation. Strong players must reconcile themselves to bad moves by weaker players and perhaps discover how to guide weaker players into the right direction of play (perhaps choosing solid play that does not require deep reading). Weaker players struggle to penetrate the reasoning behind their stronger teammate’s moves (a situation that is almost as good as a teaching game), and at a crucial juncture they can play a sente move to throw the important strategic decision into the lap of their stronger teammate (I have done this several times in the games I have played). All of this is destroyed by allowing consultation.
Don’t misconstrue what I say, as I actually like a consultation game per se, which has unique attractions quite different from rengo. I played in an unofficial consultation tournament with three teams, and the mechanics of that arrangement worked just fine.
If you are adamant about this, as you seem to be, then the rengo documentation needs to be changed (see the Ethical Requirements section, where consultation is forbidden). That is, if the documentation still means anything.
What’s next? Will botting be permitted (as on at least one other server) if a mod thinks it’s a good idea?
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This is the way I enjoy x, so everyone is only allowed to enjoy x this way. 
I have made specific arguments about what I think is the nature of the game, not arguments based on personal preference. (See how that works; my preference comes after understanding what I think is the nature of the game.) Of course, I may be wrong about the nature of rengo, and if that is the case, then people can make counter-arguments, if they are not too lazy to do so. But false ad hominem comments are out of line.
I think that there has been some fundamental miscommunication.
I don’t believe that @Eugene meant to suggest that consultation is generally okay across all Rengo games. I believe that our shared perspective is that Rengo, by default, means that discussion about the game (except to confirm resignation) is not allowed.
However, on the other hand, I believe that people are generally free and welcome to experiment with various variants that the platform is capable of supporting, provided that: 1) the games are unranked, 2) there is consensus among the participants to play under variant rules.
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I also just wanted to note that we’ve previously organized some Team Go correspondence games via the forums.
It might be possible to use the forums to help recruit and arrange a live Team Go game at a scheduled date and time.
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Yes. And in fact with Rengo we are being stricter than this, because all Rengo games are unranked anyhow.
In addition to the normal expectation of experimental games being unranked, in the case of Rengo we are also insisting that they be Casual.
Also, I need to extend what yebellz paraphrased to add that the concensus has to be there before the game starts.
Note that as Conrad rightly said, it’s currently permitted because I thought it’s a good idea 
We didn’t have a long discussion about the pros and cons of this - simply because I hadn’t imagined any way that anyone could be upset about it.
If, after these clarifications, it still seems like the end of the world for Rengo, let’s discuss.
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Lol exaggeration much?
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Hoo boy…let’s keep it civil folks. Conrad, I understand where you’re coming from and the last thing I want to do is undermine a community’s understanding of a certain format. That being said, I’d like to figure out a way (ideally via OGS) to facilitate consultation play that doesn’t have too much user experience friction. I share the sentiment with many here that it would make sense to organize games beforehand if the Rengo feature is used. That way there would be no misinterpretation from either party. At this point I’m trying to figure out the most elegant/sustainable way of implementing such a variant.
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Also, is there a better forum category than “Support” for this discussion or is this adequate?