[thelist] what IS a webmaster??

[Kasimir K]

bill scribeva in 2005-11-23 05:35:
> I've designed the site, planned, wrote and managed most of the copy,
> continue to expand the functionality, written the plan, goals and vision for
> the site, process and optimize images, in other words, the whole enchilada.

Sounds like you are the webmaster then.

> Now I've been asked by the Board to write a job description for what they
> call a 'webmaster.'

It seems that the Board doesn't know what it takes to keep a website 
running, acknowledge that, and ask you for the information. And as the 
phrase "the person who makes sure that the website runs ok and has nice 
content and overall does what it is supposed to do" is bit lengthy, they 
replaced that with word "webmaster".

> I see a series of different jobs here, all of which need
> job descriptions if and when they ever have money to hire for some of this
> work. 
> 
> Can some of you share with me what your idea of what a 'webmaster' is?

I'd say forget what "webmaster" means... In this case it is just a label 
for "the person who..." and is used by just you and the Board. To keep 
this site running it doesn't matter what majority of web developers 
think "webmaster" means - but that somebody is there and actually does 
the things you've been doing.

So just describe "webmaster" with the exact tasks you've been taking 
care of - and those you should have, but didn't yet have the skills for.

Words are funny: sometimes if we try to use them a bit differently to 
what is common a communication breakdown follows. Other times we must 
(re)define common  words to fit our communication situation. I'd say 
your case falls into the latter.

.k