What we know so far:

[Victin]

Well lets say they are activily coming across and not just accidently falling through. The other worlds have an abudence of magic and super science which we don't have. It is probably just that we don't have the ability to see these rifts to go through. Or maybe it is just a one way door.

If it's an one way door it is nonsense to think of a way of sending the cat back. That refutes your theory. But your point of detecting the rifts makes sense, unless if you count characters as Poirot, the Doctors and that sea creature, that have no known means of doing so. But, reading you opinion I've come to think that the Cakes could stop any normal person (everyone who isn't a Badass Normal) of doing so, but that is confusing due to the fact that we don't know if, when passing through the wall, you pass through the void (or the bakery. 'cuz ya know. Cakes).

[Sicon112]

Did we decide the puppet was Pinocchio? Or something much worse?

If you look at the timeline, it links to the wiki page for the puppets.

Re-posted here for convenience.

http://i.lidovky.cz/10/034/lngal/TAI321da1_hurvajs.jpg

Oh for... somebody changed the link. Let me get wikipedia up...

ACTUAL LINK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spejbl_and_Hurvinek

[AceOfSpades]

So question is it just characters who cross over or can equipment to? I hate to see a bankrobber get a hold of a sonic screwdriver.

I once put myself in a lucid dream, found myself in another universe. I decided, since I was there, I would try bringing equipment back. Now unlike most Lucids, which most dreamers could see walk around and hear, all my senses were functioning as if it was the real world. I decided to grab a few basic items, clothes and what not. As well as an item that would not be found in my own home just so I know I was there. When I did I woke myself up. Nothing went through. However while I was in the momentary median that is between world. It felt as though what ever I was trying to bring through had fallen on me before my eventual waking.

[Scarab]

I once put myself in a lucid dream, found myself in another universe. I decided, since I was there, I would try bringing equipment back. Now unlike most Lucids, which most dreamers could see walk around and hear, all my senses were functioning as if it was the real world. I decided to grab a few basic items, clothes and what not. As well as an item that would not be found in my own home just so I know I was there. When I did I woke myself up. Nothing went through. However while I was in the momentary median that is between world. It felt as though what ever I was trying to bring through had fallen on me before my eventual waking.

Cool. The thing is, these things and ideas may no longer be limtied to dreams. Do dreams count as forms of fiction too? iff they do then maybe there's potential for this sort of thing actually happening: that the almost-thereness you got from trying to bring through that object was stopped, in some way, by te existence of the wall? I mean, heck, if we're going to have THREATS from fiction breaking through, then we might as well see if there are any pros or benefits coming through that we can use to our advantage...

I had a thought actually: what might happen with characters that naturally tread the line between fiction and reality? Like, people who make web series in character as themselves? The yogscast type things for example, where there are both characters and the people who play them?

[Dryunya]

I had a thought actually: what might happen with characters that naturally tread the line between fiction and reality? Like, people who make web series in character as themselves?

I thought about that too. In fact, it undermines the whole theory that writing about cracks in the wall will produce more cracks (told us by Mr. A when we were writing the metaguards). As I said on TV Tropes, if writing about characters who break the wall all the time would actually break the wall, there would be no way nobody has met the Last Action Hero background characters by now (I'm using that example because I'm tired of mentioning Deadpool). That violates the common sense, and is disproven empirically. Hence, either Mr. A lied, or there is some other condition that we missed.

[Scarab]

I thought about that too. In fact, it undermines the whole theory that writing about cracks in the wall will produce more cracks (told us by Mr. A when we were writing the metaguards). As I said on TV Tropes, if writing about characters who break the wall all the time would actually break the wall, there would be no way nobody has met the Last Action Hero background characters by now (I'm using that example because I'm tired of mentioning Deadpool). That violates the common sense, and is disproven empirically. Hence, either Mr. A lied, or there is some other condition that we missed.

I'm not holding out hopes for Mister A's honesty. Thing is, if he's as important as we assume he is, can we afford NOT to trust him?

I think I'm basically paraphrasing this idea from somebody else in another thread, so don't credit me, but perhaps these type of characters/people are part of the problem of the wall breaking, if not the direct cause? You have people from reality; characters from fiction, and then you have people who are a little of both... Do these people break the forth wall on a daily basis? Surely that might have a knock on effect with reality?

Hell, even ARG's are essentially a bunch of people acting in character as THEMSELVES, so wouldn't they be sort of straddling that line, too?

[AceOfSpades]

James Rolfe once said something regarding plot holes. "If you can't shrink it, grow it." Maybe the reason why the fourth wall is cracking is because of poor attempts to patch it up.

[Dryunya]

What did he mean by that? Doesn't seem to make sense as it is.

[AceOfSpades]

Basically if you can't find a way to make sense of things, you just add more nonsense. In the case of the fourth wall just keep cracking until it shatters rather than try to patch it up. Because patches don't last too long.

[Scarab]

Basically if you can't find a way to make sense of things, you just add more nonsense. In the case of the fourth wall just keep cracking until it shatters rather than try to patch it up. Because patches don't last too long.

Your comment there makes me think of that Doctor Who finale a couple of seasons back, when all of time and space was being erased. My own personal understanding was that all the vanishing events and people resulted in gaping holes in the tapestry of reality, which would eventually just fall apart.

But even as all of history and everything that brought them to that point was being erased and forgotten, human beings were still sort of desperately trying to make sense of what was left. And to do that, we pretty much just made stuff up to fill in the gaps. Museum halls would have strange displays of things like The Nile penguins (because they knew penguins existed and that the nile existed, but most of Egypt and Antarctica no longer did, I suppose): patches, just as you mentioned, desperate bids to hold things together. And a lot of THAT was total nonsense too, but was all we had left. Granted, it didn't work for long... Maybe something similar is going to start happening here? If the boundaries between the real and the unreal break down, surely there's only so long we're going to be able to keep things together?

[Pixelmage]

Basically if you can't find a way to make sense of things, you just add more nonsense. In the case of the fourth wall just keep cracking until it shatters rather than try to patch it up. Because patches don't last too long.

That would a interesting resolotion, actually. If we shatter the wall, we'll blend the two realms into a new paradigm. In other worlds: We can fight to hold the Status Quo as it is, by way of the Metaguards and patches on the cracks.
Or we could cause a singularity by opening the gates and merging the realms.

Is this grounds to form factions? Should we assign some group to investigate the destruction of the wall instead of focusing all our resources into trying to hold the tide back?

That would be #MadMadMad, you know? Since #ThingsAreAboutToGet like that, could it be the next logical step?
New sect of investigation: Find out how to destroy the wall. The methods might shed some light on how it is breaking right now and how we can fix it... Or enforce it.

[Scarab]

New sect of investigation: Find out how to destroy the wall. The methods might shed some light on how it is breaking right now and how we can fix it... Or enforce it.

Sounds... dangerous. Really dangerous. Especially if suspicions about Mr. A and his folks' meddling being a direct cause of the problem are correct, messing around with things beyond their control COULD very well be the reason all this started happening in the first place.

Then again... ya gotta break eggs to make an omelette.

[YankeeWhite]

Now this is interesting. What if all our actions ultimately fracture the wall more and shatter it completely. We are after all acting as fictional characters of ourselves. Much like Tom and Dana in Echo Chamber. And if it's possible that the show weakened the wall, the we are contributing to the problem much in the same way.

Now I want to know what would happen if the wall does collapse completely! Oh the possibilities!!

[Dryunya]

Chill, people, Dryu is going meta.
We all know how it's going to end, just because the Echo Chamber folks coudn't actually merge fiction and reality. Not with their budget, anyway. That's why speculation like this is interesting (and I would engage in it, because I want a fucking Humongous Mecha), but isn't getting us anywhere. We have our endpoint, so let's work to get there.

[ElevenMinus10]

Tottaly misread that disregard any comment i just made

[Dryunya]

(dude, there's a "delete" button on the post. Use it.)

[Endless Sea]

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, I thought half the point of this was to mend the wall, not break it!

Also, Ace? On the few things you're saying I can make sense of (namely, the tirade about the Administrators and Joe), I gotta disagree. Whatever Joe is doing, he's provoking a hell of a lot of cease-and-desist orders from a number of sources, and he's just ignoring them without (as far as we know) taking the time to figure out why. Personally, I get the feeling that the letter-senders may actually be the good guys here, and the WTF series might actually end up screwing us all over. Of course, nobody knows anything about the letters or the Administrators' motives, so I probably shouldn't be jumping to conclusions yet either.

[AceOfSpades]

All Joe's been doing was trying to find out the truth about the videos he was sent with the help of anyone that has access to a keyboard. He is pretty much a Para-Journalist. As for Mr. Administrator, he is a character from a metafictional web series and his sole purpose from what I gather is that he is sabotaging any beliefs that most, not all but most, that this could be true. Think about it what's the credit of a paranormal story when a fictional character acknowledges and agrees with said storyteller. It makes us think "Oh if he is fictional and he agrees with Joe's findings, then Joe might be fictional too and ergo fake." It's an attempt to discredit under the guise of helping.

As for the letters, the first was a warning and the second was a threat. Even if some had been from the "good guys", he probably wouldn't read them yet until he felt safe enough.

[Dryunya]

You lost me.

[Lordxana0]

You know now that I think about it being a fictional character would suck. Could you imagine being a minor character in Hellsing going about your merry way and being swarmed by vampires out of nowhere? O.o. I would kill someone if they tried to force me to go back to a world as crazy as that.

[Dryunya]

Cracked has a pretty convincing article about why the comic book universes are the crappest place to live. Basically, it's for the same reason.

[Scarab]

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait, I thought half the point of this was to mend the wall, not break it!

Well I think it’s understandable that people are curious as to what would happen if the wall WERE broken completely. We’re human, that’s kind of what we do: we wonder, we theorise, we open Pandora’s box even though we know from experience what a bad idea that is. We also know from experience that sometimes the greatest goods come from horrible things (although granted more horrible things come from horrible things that good ones...).

Still I don’t think I’m cool with the idea of us making the Wall worse, at least not deliberately. No matter how curious I am, I don’t want to be party to what could be an extremely dangerous and irresponsible action, just because I want my own sonic screwdriver. I don't think it'd be worth the price paid, guys.

As for the letters, the first was a warning and the second was a threat. Even if some had been from the "good guys", he probably wouldn't read them yet until he felt safe enough.

I agree, while I'm willing to consider that hey MIGHT turn out to be good guys (at least some of them), and I think Joe needs to investigate that side of things further, they have gone about it in a bad way. They began all this with a campaign of intimidation, and with being threatening and vague. If they’re the good guys in all this why not be honest and tell Joe what the deal is, instead of just working on scaring the bejeezus out of him and making us more determined not to stop? They’re behaving in exactly the same way Mister A is – demanding actions from us without giving us any explanation.

Maybe we need to arrange some way of MEETING with these fictional guys in person. Find out from them what it is they fear so much. I don't want us all to be enemies if we don't need to be.

[Pixelmage]

You know now that I think about it being a fictional character would suck. Could you imagine being a minor character in Hellsing going about your merry way and being swarmed by vampires out of nowhere? O.o. I would kill someone if they tried to force me to go back to a world as crazy as that.

Thing is, so far only Named Characters have made an appearance. And taking Cheshire off the equation, everyone active on this side until now is also a Main Character. Even if Moriarty is on this side and we include Cheshire, they still are ALL Major Characters. No Bob from the Nasuverse is show and, for such Major Characters, going back is (mostly) not that bad.

Also, I'd find it exciting to get some insight on the possible outcomes of a full break... Getting my own Devil Fruit or Air Furies would be a bonus, yes. But knowing the nature and consequences of the wall's crumbling... That's... FOR SCIENCE!

If we get to a point of choice, expect me to join the Demolition Crew!

[Dryunya]

I have another scenario for the wall's collapse: the characters keep coming, because human imagination is endless. Eventually the Earth collapses on itself, becomes a black hole, and everyone dies. The end.
(And if the Eldritch Abominations have the time to come, we might not even see that )

[Guyshane]

You know now that I think about it being a fictional character would suck. Could you imagine being a minor character in Hellsing going about your merry way and being swarmed by vampires out of nowhere? O.o. I would kill someone if they tried to force me to go back to a world as crazy as that.

Thing is, so far only Named Characters have made an appearance. And taking Cheshire off the equation, everyone active on this side until now is also a Main Character. Even if Moriarty is on this side and we include Cheshire, they still are ALL Major Characters. No Bob from the Nasuverse is show and, for such Major Characters, going back is (mostly) not that bad.

Also, I'd find it exciting to get some insight on the possible outcomes of a full break... Getting my own Devil Fruit or Air Furies would be a bonus, yes. But knowing the nature and consequences of the wall's crumbling... That's... FOR SCIENCE!

If we get to a point of choice, expect me to join the Demolition Crew!

Not all the characters are named just the ones we are currently investigating.