Adjacent provinces is one thing; distance between nations is an even more important factor, that can only be dealt with through defined random starting locations.
The process is very easy to do and I can volunteer for it. Since I am a player, I would post starting locations here for the sake of transparancy. Of course ideally, an external player would do it, like it happens with Calahan's newbee games, where Calahan defines starting locations without players knowing where are others' starting locations. Maybe you can ask one of the community "leaders"?
I am perfectly fine with no defined random locations though if admin / other players prefer it this way
