LabourList is less than fifty days old yet we have been the subject of dozens of blogs and articles. Despite all that attention, though, there is a lingering misconception about us that I will be addressing at tomorrow’s Progress Labour 2.0 e-campaigning conference.

For those who criticise us for not appealing to the wider electorate – and those always crucial floating voters -have slightly missed the point. LabourList is avowedly aimed at the politically engaged. Mostly, we hope, the Labour-minded, but also those hostile to us, and the undecided – after all, without them we’d be limiting debate. But we know we appeal to those already really interested in party politics – a small minority of people.

The mass of voters would be uninterested in a site like LabourList. They would see us, rightly, as tribal, and mainly, as preaching to the choir. But that’s ok. Any good choir needs practice, and a discussion about how to sing best, and even which hymns to sing. We’ve featured posts from John Prescott, Alan Milburn, Billy Hayes of the CWU and over 70 others, including some fabulous grassroots bloggers – a true broadband church. Hundreds of people have posted thousands of comments.

The achievement we’re most proud of, though – which often gets completely overlooked by our detractors – is our LunchtimeList, a daily e-mail which goes out every weekday with our take on that day’s news from the papers and the web. It’s turning into an indispensible tool for Labour activists and if you haven’t signed up already you should.

But what undecided voters need is another type of web activity all together. We shouldn’t expect them to come to us, we need to go to them. That’s why it was brilliant, as part of our “Take to the Web” initiative, that Yvette Cooper did a webchat on moneysupermarket.com this week. She spoke directly to thousands of people, making Labour’s case in an accessible, friendly way. We’ll be working hard with other ministers to make sure they are making their presence felt in the web forums and groups that are relevant to their jobs.

Another online task – which LabourList will not really be concentrating on – is explicitly organising campaigns. That’s the province of the party’s own website and the excellent GoFourth. Innovations like the party’s new virtual phone bank are streets ahead of the Tories and bringing the best of what Barack Obama did over here, but tailored for the way our politics works.

None of this is to say that some floating voters won’t visit, and be welcome, on LabourList. They will, especially as we near the election. Neither is it to say that we won’t break the occasional anti-Tory story or feature a funny video that could really take off, even among non-politicos. But that’s not our main task. Our bread and butter, as our slogan indicates, is gathering interesting content for Labour minded people and facilitating comment and debate around that.

I think we’ve made, in these short weeks, a good start. John Prescott and Alastair Campbell seem to agree. But that’s really for you to judge. If you haven’t already visited, do so now, and consider becoming part of our community. And e-mail me and let me know what you think: [email protected]