What Do You Think a Webmaster Is?
It seems that the term Webmaster means different things to everyone who uses it. Some people think it's the person who has overall authority over a site. Others think a Webmaster is the person who does the maintenance. And there are lots of opinions in between.
What is a Webmaster in your opinion? Fill out this form and let us know.
What Other Readers Think a Webmaster Is
"I agree with James, a Webmaster has to be everything to the web site. It even includes putting programs on the client/server side and at times acting as a sysop for the server. Adding/deleting email accounts and such. " - Corky
"In our office no one is titled "webmaster" but I am the person who is fits James' description. The person here who fits Ink's words has is focused on the hardware and access functionality. They also have the greater knowledge about "behind-the-scene" codes. The work that really makes a site "sing and dance." I my roll I take care of the "Chrome" on the site. It's look. It's feel. It's flow. And the content which without would, of course, mean "there is no Web site!" This melding of responsibilit" - Janet
"To me a webmaster should be able to design a website that works from start to finish. He should be able to do the Layout, the coding, the writing,graphic,developing and publishing etc. He should possess all the necessary skills to manage and naintain a website. " - Paul
"The webmaster is responsible for the web site life cycle from conception, design, coding and through maintenance. If the webmaster is a one person operation, then they must know all the facets of web development. If part of a team, then the webmaster is the senior member. The content developers, web designers, graphic artists and web coders all report to and take direction from the webmaster. The larger the web team the more removed from actual web work with the webmaster assuming more admi" - Willard
"somebody... who has nothing to do.. but he loves to be called "webmaster"!" - Muhammad
"I believe a web master is in control of overseeing all details of web design and development." - Darth
"While the idea of a webmaster, for many employers, is of that one person who designs, develops, ands manages an entire website from A to Z, frankly rarely is there one human brain that can operate within all of those plains. Honestly, it ends up as a management role without the recognition, managing and taking the lead on the design(s), site builds and growth processes. Along with educating others in a company how they can use the web, or web based media, as a growth/communications tool." - Lindsey
"A webmaster is a gardener. I say this because I believe a website is like a garden. A website needs attention pulling weeds, watering and planting new seeds so it grows into a thing of beauty. About.com, Google, Yahoo, imdb.com and eBay were not built in a day then let to go to seed. They are sites where the gardener attends to their needs and makes sure they feed the needs of the people using them." - Melodie
"In my position as webmaster, I do everything from video, audio, and image editing to development of new pages on the site to layout to maintenance to coding to ... just about everything. I only do a very small amount of writing for the web, though. A webmaster is a well-rounded jack-of-all-web. He or she has to be!" - Alexis
"The Webmaster is the person who gets shouted at by the CEO on Monday morning because he couldn't show off the company website to his brother-in-law after golf on Saturday." - Nick
"web master work include web design + website optimization, web promotion, track website record and maintain the particular site completly." - santosh
"A Webmaster understands the concepts of design, user interface and data management and the methods used to deploy these elements. They may or may not be proficient as a designer, programmer or network administrator but are required to bridge these assets together into a functional display." - Kevin
"The person responsible for everything on the web site." - Dorothy
"A webMASTER must be able to produce code that is correct. Without an understanding of how to code the site, a "webmaster" is not really a MASTER. I don't think all pages must validate, but unless there is a need for a specific program that cannot validate the webMASTER will have validated code." - William
"The reason that a "Webmaster" is ambiguous is that originally the webmaster combined the design, development and administrator (system administrator) activities/roles. I still consider the system administrator who is responsible for the web server to be the webmaster. I am consider myself to be the website owner, the website designer and (sometimes) the website developer. The company that issues the Certified Internet Webmaster has similar issues. It not only issues various levels it also issues various emphasis like system admin, designer and developer." - Tom
"i agree that a webmaster is someone who cares for the website in its entirety" - natalie
"yes, i agree with james. a webmaster is someone who designs the web site, like a system analyst who designs a system but has programmers to do the coding. a webmaster should have the technical-know-how in creating, setting up and maintaining a web site." - Gene
