Majin Planet

A Webmaster’s Life Part 2

This is part two one of my old articles I wrote a while ago called “A Webmaster’s Life”. Alright well those of us who are webmasters can understand this better then anyone else. But what is a webmaster? I mean if you run your own forum, say on a server on your own or say on a free host like on Invasion Free, are you a webmaster then? What I would say is a webmaster is a bit different from what the official webmaster title would be. Lets look at how the big boys do it. Now lets look at a site like Yahoo, who is the Yahoo webmaster, do they even have one? Chances are they do but from what he or they do is different from what I do or from others.

So then what would I say a webmaster was? Well this is what I think, An individual who manages a Web site. Depending on the size of the site, the Webmaster might be responsible for any of the following: making sure that the Web server hardware and software is running properly, designing the Web site, creating and updating Web pages, replying to user feedback, monitoring traffic through the site. Now in my case I not only made the site, by either making or installing the scripts, designing the layout, getting traffic, replying to user feedback, you name it I do it. But for a webmaster of Yahoo, most case he has a team, of mangers who each have people under them who do all the work. Each of what I just named off is broken up and in which case something that would take someone like me a few hours or even days to do can be done at a moments will.

So now that we know what a webmaster is, what makes them different? Well first off in most cases they get paid for what they do and from time to time, the webmaster can change by either moving on to new projects or by losing his job, etc. While in most cases like in mine if I where to leave most cases the site closes down. Now everyday you come online and go to a web site, and then say the next day the sites gone never to be seen or hear from again. This happens because of all the hardships put on a webmaster who does everything. In most cases on some sites they hire staff members who take on many of the tasks like writing content, uploading media files, taking care of feedback, etc. Even though in those cases when we speak of a site who no one gets paid it becomes hard to keep the wheel going.

Think of this, you start a site, you took all the steps to get it to the finish product and ready to publish online for the world to see. Finally you upload the site, buy the domain and submit to search engines. A few days later you start getting traffic, lets say you have a forum as your main pull. So you now start getting members and before long you get your first email as to related to your site. You open the email only to get bashed by someone saying how much your site sucks and how you should do this and not this. Now bad can it get? Really bad some times, and what makes it hard is while webmasters who do all the hard work, spending hours if not days of their own lives to give something worth the online community to see, you get people who want you to do this and that. In most cases they just hate you and your site.

Lets look at something I know many webmasters have gone threw at least once. Lets say your site gets good traffic, example you have 500 members and at least 200 of them visit everyday. You pay for hosting lets say about $20.00USD a month, now you also have a full time job or other means of making money so money isn’t an issue. Lets say you end up being at work all day and plan on making a small update late at night once you get home. Well you come home only to find your site is down. In most cases you try again. Still down, you then try to login to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and you can’t. So now its time to call your host and get the 411 on whats going on. You learn from your host that the server went down around 12pm and they are doing all they can to get it back up. So after say another 2 hours (its now 10pm) you get a call from your host saying the server is back up. So your site is back up. You now have no time to make an update but you do at least let everyone know what happen.

In most communities members will understand because no web site has 100% up time. I do not care what line your host gives you or what other people say. It CAN NOT be done, you have to think about power outages, server upkeep and even if the server crashed due to being over used. Most host will give you 99.99% up time. You really only get about 97.99% up time. But remember you can go a year of 100% up time (that is if your server doesn’t get much traffic) and it can turn and go down for days.

For the most part, your going to get someone if not a small group of people who will flame you for having the site down for so long. Why? Who knows, some would say because its their life now and how dare you take that away. Trust me it happens more often then you think. Another crazy thing that can happen is lets say you don’t update your site for a few days or say weeks. For whatever reason it is, and then members start getting mad about it and tell you to get your act together. What happens when you change layout designs and no one like it?

The biggest problem small time webmasters have (those who aren’t like official) the biggest rock on their shoulders and depending on your sites goals and make up, lets say its a media site. Your going to have fans no matter what you do get mad at you and tell you how much of shitty job your doing. But before you let that get to you, lets say hackers keep messing up with your cute news or spammers come to your board or you get loads of hate mail and spam mail from people. Remember that these people first off have nothing better to do with their lives. Because I have visiting many sites that I have not liked. In most cases I wont say a word and just leave never to return.

If you get lots of hater about whatever site your doing remember that if they really hated your site, they wouldn’t be there because it’s just common sense if you dislike something you leave it, like if you watch something on TV and you dislike it, you change the channel. On the web you click the back button or pop open Google’s and look for something new. In any case remember that most of those haters have no idea what it takes, all the planning that goes into building a site, and some even forget that we have families and lives off the computer screen.

Just remember that unlike other projects like a graphic design or whatever the case may be, that a web site no matter if its a site on Geo Cities, a small time site like here at Banshee Force or a super monster of a site like CNN.com, a web site is always under construction from the moment it open its online doors to the day they close down.

What’s really a nail driver as we haven’t even gotten into HTML, XML and other programing like Flash, Java and JavaScript which learning can be a job on it’s own. Take PHP for example, a powerful language you can use for your web site to make it even faster and faster to update your site’s pages. Then we have the hardship of trying to get high up in the search engines and how to beat those up high to get good ranking. With all the changes made to search engines from day to day, it can be one hell of a weight on your shoulders. Let lone having to listen to someone who thinks you could be doing better but doesn’t know that you put up with more then someone on another job.

I hope you enjoy this article and I hope it brings you a new light into the world of a webmaster and that many hardships that it puts on them. In my case, I wouldn’t be doing anything else because this is what I love doing. For reason being as I’ve said before I enjoy the work and the hardship because it makes me a better person and from time to tome its fun. Thanks for reading and if your thinking about becoming a webmaster yourself someday or you’re one right now. Just remember that the no matter how bad things get just remember that as long as you do your best, that’s all that really matters at the end of the day.