Re: Tech Writer as Webmaster (kinda long)

["Parks, Beverly L." <parksb -at- HUACHUCA-EMH7 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

LaVonna Funkhouser[SMTP:lffunkhouser -at- halnet -dot- com] wrote:
>>
I call myself the webmaster of the COREComm site.  I'm responsible
for putting the pages out there, their organization, and their
content.  I design the forms, test them, and try to make sure they
work.  If you cannot see a page correctly, you should tell me
because I'd be the one who screwed up.  However, I'm not the one
who runs the server at all.  I'm not a sys admin by any means.  I
didn't even have to know CGI to make it all work.
<<

This was precisely the position I took when I created my home page. I put
a Webmaster email link at the bottom that sent the mail to *me*! Heck, I
did all those things, so I considered myself the Webmaster. It was when I
started asking people to review my page that I found out otherwise.
Interesting that you should mention Bob Sidman, LaVonna, because he was
the first person to straighten me out as far as what a Webmaster was.
After he told me that the Webmaster should be a techie person at my ISP,
and not me, I asked around to verify that. (Sorry Bob! I always try to
verify what people tell me.) Sure enough, that was the general consensus
and I got that "Webmaster" stuff off of my page fast.

I like your idea of a "content webmaster" and a "technical webmaster". I
don't think that should take too long to catch on.

LaVonna wrote:
>> Another techwr-ler, Bob Sidman, mentioned a title to me that might
actually work better. He plays a similar role for his intranet
that I do, but instead of calling himself a "content webmaster,"
he calls himself an "editor."  (He told me that all the files
for the intranet have to be submitted through him.)  Those who
don't want to be labeled as a "webmaster" might try some title
with "editor" in it. <<

The only problem I see with "editor" is that editors are not usually
associated with *creating*, just with *refining*. Personally, I like "web
designer". For that matter, what's wrong with "web writer."  <G>  Or how
about "technical writer specializing in Web design."

>> (BTW, Bob Sidman, Ray Dembek, and I are attempting to put together a
session for next year's STC conf in Toronto.  Wish us luck!) <<

Sounds like it should be fun!  Good luck to all of you!

>> By the way, I think the HTML Writer's Guild periodically debates the
meaning of the term "webmaster," so if you are interested, you might do
some research there. <<

Yup, I'm a member. (For whatever *that's* worth).

Bev Parks
bparks -at- huachuca-emh7 -dot- army -dot- mil

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