I remember when I moved from a position as a technical writer with some Web publishing duties to the Web group as a "Web Writer." My boss didn't know what to call me, I didn't (at the time) know any more advanced programming languages than BASIC and Pilot. I was well versed in HTML, had published a book, could write PERL and shell scripts, and knew a lot about design and graphics. He felt that to be a Webmaster, I should be able to program in C or C++. Once I learned C, I got a title change, to Webmaster.
Then I read an email message from a customer. He was probably in his teens and had been writing HTML for three months, and wanted some advice and possibly a critique of his pages from me. He signed his letter "from one webmaster to another..." He published a personal Web page on our servers, so he is a Webmaster, but is he really?
After that I received another email from someone asking for a link exchange on our server. She wrote, designed, and edited a small business web site. I don't know if she wrote the CGIs on that site, but she managed them, she signed herself a "Web Developer" and said if I needed more information I could talk to her Webmaster, the person who maintained their Web server.
There are dozens of different profiles and job descriptions that are associated with Webmastering. My official title is Webmaster, but I usually call myself a Web Developer. I am not under any circumstances a "webmistress".
I don't believe that the title is all that important. My job duties didn't change dramatically when I was promoted from Web Writer to Webmaster. I think I would perform just as effectively as a Web Developer rather than a Webmaster.
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