WebsiteAdministrator.com.au

In lieu of a correct official definition of the term Website Administrator by our dictionaries and other earthly reference authorities, we have formulated one for practical use. Wikipedia approximates a definition but then attempts to sublimate various distinct and different fields of expertise under the single and general definition of Webmaster. This is not correct. Let us consider but some of that offered definition...

It is perhaps true that to a greater or lesser degree, the terms Website Administrator and Webmaster may be used interchangeably. However, Website Designer and Website Developer are not and the leaders of each respective field would probably take offense to the reference. There would be only but a few, if any, that could fashion pixels from software into a dazzling and timed display of sight and sound which appears to be magic on one day, and then present a piece of mathematical genius which advances your network code on the next.

And either is worthy of a lofty title but neither is likely to be hired as a sole administrator of a website if we were to use that definition of a Website Administrator.

Yet either probably understands exactly how the other fits into the blueprint of the website and will be cognizant of which areas of the website would benefit from an increase in a specific skill set which would surpass his own. And to say that neither should be called a Webmaster until they have completed a course on ecommerce just makes no sense.

Further, most Websites have as their first and foremost requirement Promotion and / or Advertising. Any person studied in Multimedia Marketing will tell you the primary goal of every promotion undertaken is not always about obtaining sales. For example, installing a perceived fear, need or product positioning are all valid and commonplace.

Another interesting point we should perhaps reference is that the opposing and subjugated position of Webslave has still to be disclosed or defined. The of absence of a counter definition further relegates any use of master as a suffix with the term Web to that of a mere pet name. As close as i can figure, the opposing counter definition in the real world would simply be an abbreviated post title for Webmaster's Slave and that appears to be off topic. And so again we find that we lean more to Website Administrator as the correct all encompassing formal post title with Webmaster more suited to any colloquial use.

An interesting aside; If we are to believe Bill Bryson in his work, Made in America (1994), we will probably find web (suffix) -master would be the preferred name for those with a birth date that approximates the late 1930's or even the early 40's.

So, after much deliberation, and we have had cause to deliberate and fine tune the definition of Website Administrator more than most, we come to our definition because regardless of the specialist skills required for the many types of purposes for which websites are created, they all still attempt to produce the same basic effect and that can be summated into one common word which is fully expressed in our definition.

And, yes, you will be more likely to get employed if you do have current e-commerce skills. But, what if... what if.

What if tomorrow, you and i decide that because the original definition and purpose of HTML appears to have been lead astray from it's orignal intent, that we revive some old bulletin board code, put in a couple of apache servers, a few cisco routers, modem racks etc, ban normal internet from using it, put in our own google and start a whole new dial-up internet that supports a doctype of say, html 3.02 and an old version of javascript.

Has a nice megalomaniac feel about it, yes? (If you do run with this, i expect you to cash me in on part of the profits. Also, this is only but an inkling of an interesting plan i was sketching out a few years back).

See how our definition of Website Administrator still fits? It matters not the nuance of the game that is being played. And that is what a good definition should do.

And that's all the extrapolating I am going to do for now.

-Fin