Who Killed the Webmaster?

[temi]

Back in the frontier days of the web–when flaming skulls, scrolling marquees, and rainbow divider lines dominated the landscape–â€ÂWebmaster†was a vaunted, almost mythical, title. The Webmaster was a techno-shaman versed the black arts needed to make words and images appear on this new-fangled Information Superhighway. With the rise of the Webmaster coinciding with the explosive growth of the web, everyone predicted the birth of a new, well paying, and in-demand profession. Yet in 2007, this person has somehow vanished; even the term is scarcely mentioned. What happened? A decade later I’m left wondering “Who killed the Webmaster?â€Â
I found this article interesting though not sure I agree with it: blog.rightbrainnetworks.com/2007/01/28/who-killed-the-webmaster/

 

[OldWelshGuy]

What happened is that they specialised. in 1995, I was a webmaster. By 1999, I had become a webmarketer, understanding algorithms, and how to get sites to rank.

Webmasters were a species that were never really going to survive, as they were too general . we now have
graphic designers
Web designers
coders
public relations on line specialists
SEO's
Usability experts
Accessibility experts
to name but a few.

 

[Robster]

Information Superhighway

That phrase still makes me shudder

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Without braodband it is more like Coryton j32 at 5pm on a friday

 

[midlandi]

Without braodband it is more like Coryton j32 at 5pm on a friday

Do people still use dial up?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Some people still HAVE to . (not me I have 8meg broadband)

 

[temi]

I used to run a free dial up service at www.velnet.com , you will be suprised that we still get dial up customers asking for support now and again

 

[maxseo]

Webmasters were a species that were never really going to survive, as they were too general . we now have
graphic designers
Web designers
coders
public relations on line specialists
SEO's
Usability experts
Accessibility experts
to name but a few.

I would rather say that a webmaster is still alive, and a good webmaster should be an expert in all of the above ..

..

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Are you serious?
expert in
SEO
SEM
Copywriting
Website architecture
PHP
ASP
Coldfusion
Databases
etc etc
there is absolutely no way that anyone can be expected to be expert in all those areas. Certainly have a basic understanding of them and specialise in one , but expert in all is out of the question IMO.

 

[maxseo]

Are you serious?
expert in
SEO
SEM
Copywriting
Website architecture
PHP
ASP
Coldfusion
Databases
etc etc
there is absolutely no way that anyone can be expected to be expert in all those areas. Certainly have a basic understanding of them and specialise in one , but expert in all is out of the question IMO.

I think not just basic understanding but deep understanding and initially the

Website architecture
PHP
ASP
Coldfusion
Databases

categories were under coding. Any webmaster should know at least one for example php and mysql go in pair. SEO basics can be summarised in 10 steps and as I mentioned you do not need to be rocket scientist or professor to be SEO expert.

You are certainly right, nobody can be expert in all the categories you mentioned, but more than basic knowledge is required to be a webmaster unless you are calling webmasters people that go to myspace.com and create websites.

..

 

[temi]

No matter what a super webmaster you are, you cannot even be and expert in two of the above let alone all.

 

[maxseo]

No matter what a super webmaster you are, you cannot even be and expert in two of the above let alone all.

Yes I got carried away, I meant having good or deep understanding of all the concepts. Surely being expert is much more.

Lets just say a good webmaster should be an expert in one or two and have very good understanding of the concepts of other categories

..