Talk:Presidents and Prophets

Apart from this page being a shameless self-promotion, I was hoping to get a consensus as to whether this content is of value to our users. Personally I've never heard of the book, but if it's well known and people might be expected to search for it, then perhaps it's worth mentioning. However, it seems to be a book of rather transitive interest. That is, it's interesting because we have a Mormon running for president and its interest might grow if he wins, but I'd expect interest to decline once the election is over. Thoughts? --Seanmcox 10:00, 10 October 2007 (MDT)

Hopefully the content is useful to MormonWiki users. The book was featured prominently after General Conference in Utah and was on the front page of today's Salt Lake Tribune. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7180659

The book is not an established cultural icon of Mormondom. The book discusses some interesting topics, and while an article about those topics might be interesting to readers, an article about the book appears to be, in the main, of merely promotional value. (ie. valuable to you, but not of great value to our target audience.) It would dilute the value of our site if the site became a center for the promotion miscellaneous books of LDS interest. Rather, that which is valuable is information which is more directly informative regarding Mormon life, culture, and religion. Some books, such as Mormon Doctrine, The Book of Mormon, and The Miracle of Forgiveness are of such cultural importance that they have become icons of the church. They are discussed endlessly to the point that people both inside and outside the church have become interested not only in what the books contain, but in the books themselves. They want to know the origins, the influences, the authoritative value, the style. They want information about the source of information and content meta-information. I cannot say that the book this article is about is really at that level. The only reason I hesitate to delete is that I, not considering myself all-knowing, question whether the book may, even temporarily, garner that kind of interest, or have already garnered that kind of interest. Citations in the popular media do not generally mean that people will want to do anything more than find the book.

This is not a place for people to come to find an interesting book. This is not a place tell people that they might be interested in a book except possibly as a bona fide source or reference for more information related to an article or actually provided in an article. (Clearly references and citations should exist for more than mere promotional purposes.)

That said, I expect I will probably delete this article very soon. --Seanmcox 13:51, 15 October 2007 (MDT)

Fair enough explanation. You need to do what you need to do. This book, while certainly no Encyclopedia of Mormonism, is a valuable reference work since it chronicles each US president and their relationship with the Church (chapter 1 is G Washington, chapter 2 is J Adams, etc.). Helpful reference books seem to have a place in sites such as this.