Who Killed the Webmaster? 334
Posted
by
kdawson
from the smoking-guns dept.
from the smoking-guns dept.
XorNand writes "With the explosive growth of the Web in the previous decade, many predicted the birth of a new, well-paying, and in-demand profession: the Webmaster. 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?"
The CMS (Score:5, Interesting)
Next question.
they are still out there... just got rarer (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes "webmasters" are rare but they are not extinct.
became specialized (Score:3, Interesting)
if you just to page designs you are a 'wed developer' if you maintain the backend you are an administrator
in summary, the job specialized into different fields because web sites are too diverse in nature for one job description to cover maintaining all the different types
Better tools, different methods (Score:5, Interesting)
Gradually, programmers started making better tools so that less technically-inclined people could jump in and try things. Some of these folks were artists, and some rather beautiful and elegant layouts were developed. At about the same time, tools started popping up that allowed people to type content into a text box and have it appear with the proper formatting applied, or have the data be automatically imported and formatted from a database. With this, the amount of content on the web increased dramatically. A webmaster's focus was on editing and uploading individual HTML files (a comparatively laborious task compared to entering something into a blog post form), and at the same time he had to compete directly with the better designs and layouts from the art pool.
So what happened? The more technically oriented webmasters became LAMP specialists or coders (and the bottom of the barrel started making IE-only pages). The more artistically inclined ones discovered CSS and Dreamweaver and went on to contribute to a prettier and easier to use web. A very small minority with talents in both areas got fantastic jobs and made lots of money making tools for artists or better interfaces (dynamic HTML, slide-out widgets, WYSIWYG in forms). And the rest? Well, you don't get very far if you can't adapt.
Let's see how Wordpress holds up. (Score:3, Interesting)
I say common knowledge killed the webmaster (Score:5, Interesting)
And while I agree that some people have chosen to specialize even more, I've seen people go in the other direction as well. There are still Jacks-of-All-Trades, except those new Jacks may know a scripting language or two, a bit of database, a bit of graphic design, a bit of apache, etc. And those new Jacks-of-all-Trades just couldn't market themselves under the old label Webmaster, since that label doesn't really describe what they do now, nor does that old label describe something that's very special anymore.
Re:The CMS (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a friend who's had the odd "webmaster" job. The bosses expect, I think, someone who will laboriously hand-edit every page, because they don't know any better. Instead, she ponders their needs, grabs a CMS... and automates herself out of a job. She's gone through at least two "webmaster" jobs by doing this, I think.
One of these days she'll figure out how to lie to her bosses about how long it takes, I suppose.
Re:The webmaster is dead. Long live the webmaster. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I say common knowledge killed the webmaster (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but not everyone wants to work on their own small-business website, get the layout right, make sure it's compatible with IE 5,6,7, FF, and Safari... It's easier to hire a kid/freelancer/jack-of-all-trades. It's just "site designer" or something now.
-b.
Re:The CMS (Score:3, Interesting)
My take... (Score:2, Interesting)
It's probably due to not only specialization, but the growth of more methods and more complex methods of designing on the internet. When I first got a computer around 1999 - 2000, I remember around 6 months into being on the internet wanting to learn how to start web designing. It probably took me about 2 years of self teaching to get familiar with HTML (the 3rd or 4th year I pretty much knew everything about HTML), and only recently in the past year have I been serious enough to sit down and learn CSS (on shaky ground since CSS2 sucks standards balls, but whenever I get to taking a web design course or when I fully comprehend the box model I should be fine). I never learned javascript because I never took an intro to programming class in high school (i regret it), and don't give me that generic arrogance about not needing to programming to know javascript: Ive met plenty of people who just dont get programming at all, and a few of these 6 or 7 finally went to an intro to progamming class and were finally able to get it (one of them is still stuck on visual basic, another breezed through and is currently learning C# and PHP.)
That brings me to another point: early web designing (where it was just basically HTML, Javascript,) required much less patience and certain abstract concepts to utilize (i.e. the box method with CSS). When most moved to CSS, and left tables behind, a ew stood by tables and Im more than sure a seperate group eventually just stopped doing web design altogether. Im beginning to see that this might be true, as although Im currently so far into learning CSS that I might as well go the full mile and learn it inside out, I can't say the same for AJAX or all of PHP. The simple days of simply delivering content effectivly were more than met by HTML and javascript, but then other concepts became important: appearence, feedback, viewer interaction, standards (always been there but became a spotlight issue as more browsers appeared, css appeared, and when IE *was* the dominant browser). .ASP) etc. etc... As time goes by, and as more technologies become popular, I wont' be surprised to see the roles of the webmaster further mutate (very obvious), but I also wont be shocked at the changing numbers of webmasters; like say, during this whole web 2.0 charade, many become dormant because their goals/ideals/philosophies/techniques as webmasters do not fit the current climate of focus: obviously, if your a professional web deisnger, adhering to older technologies wouldn't get you much of a job, but if your slow to evolve and/or learn newer ones, your job security becomes null. I bet when the hype around certain technologies dies down, some will become less dormant and possibly some will start learning some of the technologies they originally rejected (a backlash of the backlash, if you will).
Web 2.0 has been, more or less i think, about interaction and dynamic web pages: blogs, news delivery systems (Drupal, CMS, PHP,
Personally, Ive gotten tired of web designing specifically because with CSS, my perfectionism has made doing any web design on my own free time for my own (hiatus) sites a living fucking hell because I cant stick with a design lol. Of course, I haven't taken any officially training or courses, so I'm sure that would help eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if some perfectionists just slowly gave up when all these new technologies came out (depending on certain webmaster's laziness or discipline levels ). :/.
Although, PHP is pretty useful, I'll eventually learn it when I know how to program. Until then it's just notepad, what litle patience I have, and trial and error. XD. Anyways, all in all, certain new technologies are going to weed out those who want to adopt, and those who don't. And then of those two, there could be two other groups: those who end up quitting altogether, and those who wait out the trendy tide and come out during the calm waters. I hope I'm one of the later
Because Webmaster is actually three jobs ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sys Admin, takes care of the box, OS, server apps
Web Designer, designs look, feel, navigation of site, artistic type with likely limited technical skills
Programmer(s), most likely more than one if the site is complicated and uses more than one language and/or a db.
(note I grouping dba's in with programmers here, but that doesn't always happen that way either. so maybe 4 jobs)
What would you call my job? (Score:2, Interesting)
We have customers that we support in a 24x7 operating enviornment globablly with 50+ million hits per month. We have 20+ GB of data fed through the site a day which is parsed, analyzed, databased, and dynamically displayed (and you guessed it, I run the suite of databases as well) with tools/page layout and navigation method put in place by me. I've put CMS systems in place to handle static content, of course - but nearly everything now is handled machine-to-machine with the interfaces between them in web-based platform allowing nearly seamless access to all of our data. Of course, there is always some new application they'd like, or some feature added to what currently exists, and I hear a question that starts with "Hey, would this be possible..." at least a few times a week.
Though I do have a team of administrators that handle the day-to-day management of patching the 50+ servers that are running scripts, and producing products, and though all content (primarily grapical in nature) is handled by a group of 130 individuals; the vast majority how they access data and the tools they use are all being designed and programmed from my desk.
Yes, it takes a large amount of specialized knowledge about MS, JavaScript, ColdFusion,
Without the term webmaster, I don't know what I'd call my job without something crazy like:
"Network/Web/Systems-Engineer/Developer/Administr
I was a Webmaster (Score:4, Interesting)
Now I make my money setting up the CMS, customizing it, building webapps and designing databases.
The Webmaster went the way of the weaver when the mechanical loom came. And that's a good thing. No need for humans anymore. Automate it and move on. It's a big wave and it's called cyberpunk. Learn to ride it.
I was a Fortune 500 Webmaster .. Twice (Score:5, Interesting)
My last job, at a fortune 500 power tool manufacturing company, my title was actually 'Webmaster' and I hated it. I took the job in 2000, Coming from another large company, the one that 90% of you use for your cable modem in the U.S. There I was a 'Web Designer', or sometimes a 'Web Developer'
In 1998, when I took the job at the 'Cable Company', they were just rolling out their Cable Modems, and looking for sales-men. Having spent the last five years local, and over the pond, selling metal toy soldiers, paint, and full colour hobby magazines to kids [or to reluctant store owners, who didn't understand that kids spend a lot of money on my former company's products.] I sent a resume in. I was hired. Quickly. And spent 6 months in the number one,two, or three spot on their sales floor.
Someone, somewhere found out that I actually had a degree in Computer Science
Lots and lots of work in a brand new 'field', learning something new every day.
Skip forward to 2000, and I changed companies for a 50% pay increase. I figured any company willing to almost double my salary HAD to have a challenging environment. Woah boy was I wrong. Most of the other 'web masters' there knew html. maybe a little javascript out of a book. NONE of them had any experience in programming. My job quickly turned into churning out HTML filled spam-email, and endlessly updating the look-and-feel of a few corporate websites to keep up with marketing driven initiatives.
I did get to write a cool football pick program for a well known cystic fibrosis charity the last year there though
I spent FIVE years there, trying to make my job a better one. But that great salary was becoming less so, as I had few raises. I was moved from my original department that had a bonus scheme - to another that didn't. [like a 10-15k a year pay cut on good years] I worked for a number of bosses who had NO idea what I could actually do, and when I tried to explain to them - couldn't understand what they didn't understand
It got so I was embarrassed to mention my title to anyone in the company. I was doing NO real work, just busywork, and watching folks who went to other companies that I doing all the cool stuff, for the same or more money. I had chosen poorly.
So
So what killed the webmaster ? I think it was a little bit of a lot of things
Many early webmasters were code heads who learned html early on, and went with it. Hacking away at a new idea was like breathing to those guys. These guys became in high demand, as there were very few full time coders who wanted to give that up for 'html' crap, but people did give it up, when the salaries surpassed what they were making. With clear second site, it seemed such easy work for good money
The other kind of early webmaster was the person who saw html code, and dremweaver or (shudder) frontpage, and set up shop as a webmaster, with no coding experience - and PROUD of the fact that they were self taught. They could do layout, many had a good eye for design, and carved a niche and hung on to it desperately in the early 2ks. There were LOTS of these guys.
Throw on top of that the cha
very true... (Score:2, Interesting)
Its pretty strange, but apparently people don't realize that web pages don't updated themselves, and that having a good web-site, especially for a product, idea, or concept, requires some hands on personnel.
No One (Score:2, Interesting)
Honestly, in today's world, if you are assuming the role of webmaster, chances are you're familiar with setting up some kind of server environment, or at least knowing how to use it.
Plus, 'Network Administrator' looks way better on a business card