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Serious question: does the concept of a webmaster still exist in 2023? Sites are developed and built in dtap, deployed by gated processes, and in many instances

Serious question: does the concept of a webmaster still exist in 2023? Sites are developed and built in dtap, deployed by gated processes, and in many instances nobody but the deployment agents have access to the actual production servers.

stingraycharles 3y ago
It has been years since I ever heard the term “webmaster” indeed, but I guess the point was “people who are in control of websites”, and not the concept as we knew it from the 90s (“that one dude who manages our corporate website”).
camillomiller 3y ago
Maybe not, but you could be in a bit of a bubble regarding the average website deployment method. In my experience as a webdev most website are still very much deployed in a way that’s controllable by those who would put up such an alert. The problem is rather political. Any organization with a website relevant enough to make such a popup worthwhile would never agree to have such a popup alienating its largest share of visitors. Small independent sites would, but they would be pretty much preaching to the choir.
- amelius 3y ago
  For large organizations, there are two ways to limit consequences for individual webdevs: 1. Get fingerprints of the browsers of your superiors (or simply use IP addresses), and don't show the popups on those browsers. 2. Let the script be hosted by a central authority (say eff.org), so they can activate it centrally and the popup appears on many websites at the same time, which will make you look less bad.
matsemann 3y ago
My aunt was one of the first "webmasters" in Denmark, getting their municipality information online. In Danish, aunt is "moster", so when she helped me and my mom make a website for my mom's business, the footer said "Webmoster" instead. She also helped me set up an e-mail. I called myself mats_pc, because having PC in my name like she did felt cool and techy. Only later did I realize she had _pc as that was her initials after getting married. So I basically changed my name to hers, hehe. Good memories.
ehnto 3y ago
Web development is still wildly varied in execution. I think we can end up with blinders based on our work, but websites still get deployed in ways that would make a webmaster role relevant. Not sure you would call them a webmaster these days, but the role is there.

stingraycharles 3y ago

It has been years since I ever heard the term “webmaster” indeed, but I guess the point was “people who are in control of websites”, and not the concept as we knew it from the 90s (“that one dude who manages our corporate website”).

camillomiller 3y ago

Maybe not, but you could be in a bit of a bubble regarding the average website deployment method. In my experience as a webdev most website are still very much deployed in a way that’s controllable by those who would put up such an alert. The problem is rather political. Any organization with a website relevant enough to make such a popup worthwhile would never agree to have such a popup alienating its largest share of visitors. Small independent sites would, but they would be pretty much preaching to the choir.

amelius 3y ago
For large organizations, there are two ways to limit consequences for individual webdevs: 1. Get fingerprints of the browsers of your superiors (or simply use IP addresses), and don't show the popups on those browsers. 2. Let the script be hosted by a central authority (say eff.org), so they can activate it centrally and the popup appears on many websites at the same time, which will make you look less bad.

matsemann 3y ago

My aunt was one of the first "webmasters" in Denmark, getting their municipality information online. In Danish, aunt is "moster", so when she helped me and my mom make a website for my mom's business, the footer said "Webmoster" instead. She also helped me set up an e-mail. I called myself mats_pc, because having PC in my name like she did felt cool and techy. Only later did I realize she had _pc as that was her initials after getting married. So I basically changed my name to hers, hehe. Good memories.

ehnto 3y ago

Web development is still wildly varied in execution. I think we can end up with blinders based on our work, but websites still get deployed in ways that would make a webmaster role relevant. Not sure you would call them a webmaster these days, but the role is there.