I don't have the time, know how, or patience(to be honest) to develop them myself...
So, I am looking for someone to develop a few ideas I had into working variants... I am even willing to say, I won't be angry or upset if they take full credit for the ideas...
so, my ideas are:

A) this variant is extremely simple, as the only major difference is that the Adriatic Sea is smaller, so that it is still the only sea that Venice borders, but Trieste will then border the Ionian as well, so that Austria can make a more dramatic opening move of Trieste to Ionian Sea making Italian-Austrian diplomacy all the more critical...

yes fasces, I suck at coding as well. :) anyways, let me figure out how B could possibly work(It is also designed to make Austria a bit more Sea Worthy)

B) The classic map besides Austria-Hungary. Austria will be given a 4th home supply center, Albania(adding one new center there)... the win condition will be 19, as a second, neutral, center, will be added in Ireland. Austria will start with fleet in Albania, armies in Budapest, Vienna, and Trieste.

C) The classic map, only Tunis is an Italian home center, starting with a fleet in it.

D) The classic map, only Switzerland is passable.

someone needs to butter your bread

??? say what now Rancher?

they all seem to be minor changes that would cause balance issues making either Austria or Italy stronger then they should be

I agree with fasces. Further, very little changes in maps and/or rules are usually unsuccessful.

ClassicVS (7 Players) - 147 games ('cause it's usually played with only 2-3-4 players )
Classic map - Fog of War (7 Players) - 78 games
7 Islands (7 Players) - 24 games
Crowded (11 Players) - 23 games (in spite of the 4 more players needed)
Economic (7 Players) - 22 games
- Classic (7 Players) - 21 games -
Classic, but build anywhere (7 Players) - 20 games
1897 (7 Players) - 18 games
Classic with a custom start (7 Players) - 16 games
1880 (7 Players) - 12 games
Classic - GreyPress (7 Players) - 10 games
USA (8 Players) - 9 games
Octopus (7 Players) - 6 games
Classic, with fleet in Rome (7 Players) - 3 games
Milan Diplomacy (7 Players) - 3 games
NoNeutrals (7 Players) - 3 games
PilotClassic v0.1 (7 Players) - 1 game played on this server (I can't find it!)

As you can see, the bigger are the changes in map/rules, the more the variant is played and successful.
Variants that claimed to better arrange Italy/Austria (Milan, fleet Rome) are basically ignored.
And I guess that, alas, when the "new map excitement" will be gone, even Pilot (2 games running, 3 starting (maybe)) will be forgotten.
I've never felt the need to give a try on Milan, F-Rome or Pilot and I think I'll never feel it for a Classic Map, or any other successful Map, to which only some minor changes has been added.
I'm afraid that many players here feel the way I do. Or so it looks by the stats.

So butter, frankly, I suggest you to save your efforts for some of the great ideas you usually have.

that reminds me, i was going to do an inversion variant...

I think we need some sorting function for variants, so 'classic map', 'almost classic', 'geographic map', 'fantasy map' can be separated out... also sorting by number of players would be nice...

Well that's nice of you guys to chime in, but not to sound like an ass, but if you aren't here to offer your services to do these, then don't chime in at all... I do recall somewhere Oli saying that ALL variant's were welcome, so I am just trying to find a willing person to do these... whether unsuccessful or not, I wish to see them given a shot...

For A, download the classic map (here: http://vdiplomacy.net/download.php ) go to file install.php

search for the Adriatic sea and find the line with a ->addborder function
change each border as required (removing the ones you don't want, and adding in new ones for the new links, like trieste to ionian sea, and don't forget to add the reverse border, ionian sea to trieste...)

Then change the names of all the extended classes to the name of your new variant (instead of 'class ClassicVariant extends WDVariant' you want your 'class YourNameHereVariant extends WDVariant')

and set the new variant name and copyright info in variant.php

and you're done.

@orathaic- I see all the codes for the different variants, but I don't see where the classic map is on there...

you're right, my bad, i downloaded mine from kestas

it is here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdiplomacy
once you download webdip, the classic variant files are in webdiplomacy/variants/classic

Won't let me download it without downloading/purchasing a bunch of software.

it is free. shouldn't need to purchase anything.

my computer doesn't seem to have the programs needed to run it, so it want's me to purchase some crap...

?? sure?
You don't need to purchase anything to run a webdip install...

I dunno, my computer just doesn't like me I guess... I tried to do it, and it kept saying it can't run it until I download something, so I downloaded that, and it said it couldn't run that until I PURCHASED something else, and that was out of the question...

On a related note:
I'll help anybody code a variant he wants to bring online if I have the time (I can help with coding, but I won't do the maps. Reusing old code is much easier than developing complete new rule changes) Also I'll release even minor variants if I get thes code ready to run.
Maybe I'll think about a different naming scheme to group all variants based on the same map.