Then there’s the question about where to post threads about Wally’s death. (Not to mention Dr. Watson.)
At the time of Wally’s death, the Staff had very little reason to think that it was not a legitimate event, and thus it would qualify. If things became more hazy long ex post facto, well, I may not be “good enough” to have ever been a Moderator on the SDMB, but I’ll hazard that you guys were/are not tasked with the job of cross-checking every single report of every-single real-life event in fine detail. Mistakes may be made, due to human error or fraud, and if people have a problem with legitimate and uncommon mistakes then I guess there’s no helping them.
Yes, well, there isn’t even a hint of whimsy in any of the other forum names. That might be what occasionally throws off posters like our OP here.
I don’t think this is a huge deal; it’s a simple little problem with simple little fix. I’m just surprised you hold MPSIMS’s name so close to your heart. I guess some people just gots to have theys whimsy. lol
I gotta agree with this 100 percent. Overclassification leads to boredom. Let’s leave things the way they are.
I can’t recall her name, and search drew a blank (perhaps it occurred during the winter of missed content), but I distinctly recall a former African American poster who was so incensed about a mod moving her homage to a deceased civil rights leader thread to MPSIMS that she stormed off in protest.
If such threads were moved to ATMB, it seems to me that we’d have the same problem we always have with stuff in here. People just don’t tend to look in here every day. Maybe the mods could post announcements?
Well, MsWhatsit herself was the only one who suggested another forum, and apparently she wasn’t actually serious so I don’t think “overclassification” is really an issue here at all.
All the suggestions, besides changing the name or maintaining the status quo, seem to call for a whole bunch of Moderator monitoring/moving of threads and taking requests to put up announcement threads. I really doubt anyone wants to actually get into that.
Then there is the persnickety problem of decided which and whose “life events” are worthy of an announcement. I remember andrewdt85 was quite upset about not getting his banning thread in ATMB - I can just imagine how he’d be if he didn’t get his death announcement. 
“Mundane, Pointless, or Serious Stuff I Must Share”. MPSSIMS.
Or for Cathloic felines, a catformation? Socialite catkins a catting out party?
Ok, I’m done now. Sorry, my cat made me do it.
Even if the name were changed to, I don’t know, maybe “Life and Death and Cats and Children and Sex and Weather and I Went to the Park Today and I Saw Some Pretty Flowers and All That Stuff Not Elsewhere Specified”, what’s the betting that most of us would continue to refer to it as MPSIMS anyway? I mean, there are plenty of real-world examples of (usually old-ish) hospitals and university buildings and what-have-you that are widely known by a name other than their real official one. I suppose, really, even death and dreaded illnesses are “mundane”, being just yet more things that happen in the world. It doesn’t really need to have a trivialising or pejorative meaning.
On the other hand, we could have a great fun time playing at inventing a new name for it. Make us all pay to vote and, well, next step = profit. 
I think I’m going to call it “Mippy”. Or “Stuff”.
Thinking again. perhaps rowrrbazzle has nailed it. Or call it “Miscellaneous Personal Stuff I Must Share”, so that the abbreviation remains the same?
Or “Cecil’s Big Cupboard in the Hallway, You Know, the One Where You Put Stuff When You Don’t Quite Know Where Else to Put It, But It is Often Quite Important Stuff Really”?
The MPSIMS-ites have already infested the Pit, now you think they should be in ATMB? Og, no.
Well, I agree, announcements is probably a bit over the top, but, if we limit this to deaths and serious illnesses, the situation doesn’t really come up all that often.
So all announcements regarding our cats and kin would stay in MPSIMS?
Bwuh? Where the hell did I post that?
I’ve ceased caring about this issue, but I think I should set the record straight about what I advocated.
The subject of this thread (see the OP) is about “sad news about illness or death within the SD family.” We’re not talking about MPSIMS-ites “infest(ing)” ATMB, we’re talking about announcements about “sad news about illness or death within the SD family.” Given that, somehow, despite their seeming array of mishaps and misadventures, Dopers don’t suffer from serious illness or death that often, I reckon there would be very few occasions for ATMB to be “infested.”
Sorry, Una Persson, I didn’t intend to single out you or your posts in particular. Just saying there’s enough MPSIMS in MPSIMS, and lately in the Pit, so adding it here just ain’t necessary.
Sure, I just wanted to clarify in case you, or someone, thought I was…no problemo.
I think MPSIMS should stay MPSIMS, and illnesses and deaths should still be posted there. It’s the place Dopers know to go to find out about the personal lives of other Dopers. I’m not sure how many people even think about the full name of the forum anyway. It’s just MPSIMS–the place we go to share personal news of all kinds.
Death announcements should not be here in ATMB; most people don’t even read this forum and it’s a pretty dry place for really personal news. IMHO, and all that.
But, really, what purpose would a name change serve? Changing the name doesn’t change the nature. Even if you dropped the “mundane and pointless” from the title, you are still going to have birth and death announcements next to the check out what my cat threw up announcements. I just don’t get the reasoning that it’s bad now, but if the name changes it will be ok.
Exactly. The names aren’t that descriptive or we wouldn’t need the sticky posts in the forums.
Nobody complained about the cat puke threads being next to the death announcements*. The OP of this thread very specifically said “but it bothers me to see such news listed under MUNDANE POINTLESS STUFF I MUST SHARE.” He is not the first to make that comment. Lordy, it’s hard to keep a thread focused around here. lol.
I find the other forum names pretty descriptive. So is MPSIMS; it’s just that some people get a little turned off by that description.
I’ve actually come up with a simpler plan that doesn’t require new forums or name changes. Instead, we’ll start an education campaign to get Dopers to realize that death, illness and marriage are in fact rather mundane and pointless. Waddya say? I’m sure Shakespeare would agree.
*eta: I guess **Liberal **did bring that up.
I think those types threads should stay in MPSIMS. I don’t care if the name of the MPSIMS forum is changed.
I think putting death/extreme sickness threads in this forum is a terrible idea. Currently, this forum only displays one page and most of that is locked stickies. New threads are limited to about 3 or 4. Chances are good any new threads would drop off in a matter of hours before people even know they were there and no one would know to search for them either.