When is a new website not a new website?

Bizarre is probably the best word for it.

You see, earlier today Ed Miliband proudly “launched” the LabourSpace website. Now I thought this all seemed a bit familiar, and indeed on checking I found Alex Hilton (of LabourHome and Recess Monkey) was writing about the site having been launched back in November 2006. So not really so much of a launch today if it was actually launched 26 months ago?

Ah, but you might say, perhaps the launch 26 months ago was a beta and today is the final version. Er, no. Because post-“launch” the site still proudly calls itself Beta 0.2 (and yes, I did all the boring stuff to ensure that I wasn’t viewing any cached images):

There’s then a rather weird slanging match between Labour and the Tories after the Tories issued a press release poking fun at Labour re-announcing something they’d already announced and Labour / LabourList dishing out the insults in return, but without ever actually explaining, “If you’re trying to explain away all this by saying the launch is about LabourSpace no longer being in beta, why is it still saying in nice letters right at the top ‘Beta 0.2?'”

Indeed, it does leave LabourList looking rather silly for mocking the Tories for supposedly not noticing that LabourSpace used to say at the top of the site that it was in beta without apparently noticing themselves that it still says at the top of the site that it is in beta.

Aaah, internet politics; ain’t it great?