Eventualism

Eventualism is a tendency amongst tropers that focuses on the eventual value of ATT in the long-term rather than the immediate value. Contrast immediatism, the opposite viewpoint.

Historically, the eventualist perspective has been strong, as our predecessor was of little current value at the time of its inception, so its value in several years' time was of primary importance. As TV Tropes grew in practical use (though as of late has started to decline), a more immediatist approach won adherents. If All The Tropes ever approaches its target, the immediatist position may triumph, but for now there is still a tension between these differing schools of thought.

It is reasonable to suggest that the target can never be completely reached because by definition a perfect troping compendium will move with the times (Latin: tempora mutantur). Some eventualists believe that All The Tropes is an ecology of ideas which breeds quality in the long term and so believe in trusting the process. Others believe that the nature of the Wiki is such that any controls which immediatists think should be used to guarantee total quality are bound to be useless in practice and potentially harmful to the project.

In stark contrast to an exclusionist, an eventualist has no objection to large chunks of unwikified text and trusts that, eventually, someone will fix this, where an immediatist or exclusionist would be concerned that they would not be as useful as trope or work articles without links.

Eventualists follow inclusionism with respect to stubs and other low-quality articles, though they may well concur with deletionism with respect to articles being considered for deletion for reasons such as lack of relevance to troping. Unlike deletionists, eventualists would rather give an article on a notable topic a time to evolve and improve than delete it. On the other hand, an article on a dead non-notable person will almost certainly forever remain an article on a dead non-notable person. Such articles have no place in the encyclopedia that the eventualists envisage.

Eventualism is largely consistent with incrementalism, though the two have different reasons for their similar views. Whereas an eventualist believes that Wikipedia's worth increases with time and movement towards a never-reached completeness, an incrementalist believes that the same processes will inevitably lead to information once judged as non-notable becoming seen as more notable. As such, it is quite possible for a troper to be both eventualist and incrementalist in their views.