Forum Moderators: phranque
Nothing wrong with webmaster; it's well accepted, but have just never used to describe what I do. Personal thing really.
Which has nothing to do with what I do. :-)
It's a label thrown about for and by people who have limited understanding of the technology. Like when you don't get a raise, but get promoted to senior [whatever].
I think I've only met (virtual or otherwise) two real "webmasters" in my life, and one of them is right here over in the Apache forum, a true master of all things on the web.
And I ain't on of 'em, I'm still a student after all these years.
To answer the question, I have multiple tasks, so I assign multiple "labels:" overall, web developer kinda' . . . fits.
And is about 3 pay grades below "webmaster". Developers are gloried gfx designers and make half what Webmasters make.
> Site Manager?
Couldn't program his way out of a paper bag with a flashlight.
> IT developer
Nice ring to it, but it refers to hardware (PC) guys.
I think webmaster is coming back into vogue after being in and then out of favor.
The 'Webmaster' joins your party!
HP: 100/100
MP: 675/675
But as geeky as the term sounds, that's what you are. Don't dumb down your "rank" for others to comprehend.
====> Brett_Tabke, where does a Web Adminstrator :o) fit into your heirarchical scheme?
BTW StoutFiles...as I am quite the geeky, nerd *ahem* and so aptly named...I think a WebMaster should have significantly higher HP, even when starting the RPG.
Truthfully, as I work in ecommerce, I just tell people, "I sell 'widgets' on the web." They get the gist of it and know better than to ask technical questions as they don't want actual answers. The conversation usually turns to the items I sell as opposed to the work which goes into selling them. :o( Go figure.
WebMaster: "You successfully helped the NOOB consumer complete an online transaction for 25 experience points and and 15 gold pieces. But he later disputes it for a charge back."
Level 5 Merchant: "I cast a charge back dispute spell."
WebMaster: "It was actually a phishing bot and not a NOOB. You lose 50 experience points and 20 gold pieces."
Level 2 Programmer: "I start casting my level 2 fraud prevention spell."
WebMaster: "The spell will take 3 rounds to complete." (rolls dice) "A rogue spider started pounding your web site and is preventing any additional sales."
Level 3 SysAdmin: "I use my +2 firewall against it!"
WebMaster: "Roll to block it."
Level 3 SysAdmin: (rolls dice) "Dang, a 3!"
WebMaster: "Your firewall's rules have no affect."
Level 3 SysAdmin: "I update the rules." (rolls dice) "A 1! What is going on today?!?"
WebMaster: "I have to look up what a 1 means... Oh, not good! You managed to overload the UPS and your server is completely down. On the bright side, you stopped the rogue bot!"
Level 5 Merchant: "I fire the SysAdmin!"
[edited by: LifeinAsia at 9:57 pm (utc) on Oct. 28, 2008]
Edit:
Sorry to have hijacked an honest thread...the impulse is just too powerful to overcome.
LifeInAsia, it was a pleasure playing World of WebMaster with you.
[edited by: HugeNerd at 10:21 pm (utc) on Oct. 28, 2008]
Good thing. Your domain choice was starting to look so passe. ;)
Anybody know who coined "webmaster"? He/she must have been pretty proud of that old html. I would have never been so bold. The web will never be mastered; that's what I love about the business: "If I can't webmaster in heaven, I'm not going".
Most people still label me as Wembaster anyhow. The pay grade (in my particular situation) wouldn't be different between masters and developers.
<Offtopic>
I can just see the Webmaster RPG making it big. One thing you should take into consideration is that in most RPGs the starting characters are total tools.
My RPG experience says that the 1st level character would manage to create a site with no original content and sloppy HTML, have it hijacked and get it banned from SEs within one week.
</Offtopic>
I think Wembaster sounds much better, I think I'll adopt that title.
I was thinking : Web Development and I.T project Manager its a bit of a mouthful but fits my job to a tee, hope the MD agree's.
Personally i'm not a bit fan of the term webmaster its far to generic, carries no weight, sounds like you just answer web enquiries all day and maybe do updates.
I use Internet Marketing Consultant
Marketing seems to me like it would fall outside of, and be a delegated facet of, the job description of WebMaster. By this I mean: If I were hiring for a company I would hire a WebMaster to run the operation and an Internet Marketing Consultant to work under the WebMaster. The Internet Market Consultant would do just that, consult the WebMaster on everything from SEO and content writing to click campaigns and onsite advertisements.
Maybe I just tend to think of a "WebMaster" as a firm or group of individuals as opposed to a single person. Then again, anyone running a site on their own...or the odd RPG character...should be able to call themselves a WebMaster.
Internet Marketing Consultant to work under the WebMaster.
I do get a little of that in the larger companies that have in house web development teams. The good news I am generally not "under" them but rather work "with" them to accomplish the goal. The better news is I get even higher fees than for any type of web development work I would ever do.
For the smaller and mid-size companies I get the job to do everything from development to marketing and the good news is they see a lot more value in me because I am the complete package and the one stop shop which is something they highly value rather than having to hire a ton of freelance professionals and try and make them all work together. I do all of that for them and they get a finished product that meets their needs and accomplishes their marketing goals.
However, even in that case I think there really should be a webmaster who's responsible for making sure the whole thing comes together properly.
I have no doubt there is such a person. I think the goal of this thread is to thresh out what title that person should/does hold. I think WebMaster fits this (jack-of-all-trades, individual in charge) definiton perfectly.
@Fortune Hunter: I did not mean that in all cases an Internet Marketing Consultant would necessarily work under the WebMaster. Just that if I saw a list of employees and their titles with no other information, my assumption would be that the Internet Marketing Consultant would report to the WebMaster.
I would hire a WebMaster to run the operation and an Internet Marketing Consultant to work under the WebMaster
I would hire an Internet Marketing Consultant and a webmaster to work under marketing.
I've seen far more problems arise where IT it dictating to marketing how the website needs to run than the other way around.
This is definitely an opinion, and I'm sure a rather unpopular one here.
- jump right back into the .PSD file you were working on last night before you went to sleep, (at 2:00am), finish it up and save it as a .JPG optimized for use on the web
- use an FTP client and upload said .JPG to a directory on a server, and while you're there, you clean out some old files that you know are no longer used or needed
- browse the page where the image is being used and decide you need more white space around it so you edit in some CSS to just to give it padding on the two (out of four) sides that need the space.
- read all the latest at WebmasterWorld, and post a few replies, (and only engine has been there before you)
- check the stats on a couple domains to see what type of traffic they are (or aren't) getting and can evaluate the the stats in a rational way, identifying patterns, trends, search terms, good and bad bots, and send reports to concerned parties.
- based on the stats you just looked at, you edit some .htaccess files to handle some problems, block or allow a bot or two, then optimize, create or delete a few pages to better monetize the search traffic patterns you spotted
- upload / download some data as either .CSV, XML or other "raw" format that's integrated into a site
- install an upgrade of a web based app
- tweak a few settings in some ecommerce software, a blog or two, or some other web based apps.
- fix a bug in a perl script that nobody but you noticed yet, and not introduce a new problem -- then find and fix something else in a php page on another site
- pull up an email from a customer and tell them their admin login info, because they just hired a new assistant and the old one was the only one who knew it, (except you).
- check you Adsense or Adwords account(s) and do whatever needs to be done.
- register a new domain, renew a few others.
- read, respond to and file a bunch of email in a way that you can easily pull them back up when / if needed
- look up and reconfigure the network key on a security enabled local machine because the NIC card or Windows XP lost it's mind.
- noticed a good JS one liner in a post and cut and pasted it into a page where it did just what you needed.
- trim down a .WMV file and sync up the audio, add a title and convert it to .FLV -- then FTP it into place, write some HTML to wrap it in a SWF player, center it in a table, wrapped in a CSS styled div, and it all works and passes validation on the first try
- call a couple customers about their sites, and one or two call you, and discuss web issues and concerns.
- email a link to a customer so they can hook up with a good merchant account provider -- and in your email you rattle off an explanation of setup fees, discount rates, per transaction fees, etc.. in a way they can understand without having to sort through 14 pages of reading on the merchant account providers site
- log into Google webmaster tools, generate a verification file, upload it, check the URL, then click verify, then go to Y! and do the same (even though Y! calls is "authentication"), all while you are talking on the phone -- and since you're in your Webmaster Tools or Site Explorer accounts -- you check a few new customer's sites to be sure the sitemaps.org format XML feeds you uploaded are indexed and have no errors.
- go to Google maps and claim a customer's business listing for them, edit in an honest, brief, natural looking keyword rich description, upload a few pictures for their business, then have Google call their number on one line while you're on the other line telling them the pin they need to enter, and it all takes 3-5 minutes and gets done correctly.
- refuse to allow Win XP to reboot your machine after an automatic update because you are too busy and don't have the 5 minutes to spare -- and are scared knowing the update may not have gone well and you'll end up spending a LOT more than 5 minutes to reconfigure networked printers or other plug n' play devices after it reboots.
...and, it's still before lunch;
YOU ARE A WEBMASTER
I think webmaster is most appropriate when someone is a jack-of-all trades who more or less does EVERYTHING for a site...
Well. You know what they say. Jack of all trades . . .
Master of none. Which makes my point. :-)
In the long run, when people ask what I do, I usually just say, "computer stuff"
