Why a tribute has not appeared yet

Every tribute waits until whoever looks after the notice approves it. That is usually the family; when a funeral home posted the notice and has not handed it over yet, it is the funeral home. Nothing is approved automatically, and we do not approve tributes on the family's behalf — the notice is theirs.

The family is not sent an email for every tribute. Each morning at 8:00 am we send them one summary of what is waiting, so a tribute written in the evening is seen the next day at the earliest. Many families wait until after the funeral to read them together, and some take longer still. There is no deadline, and a waiting tribute never expires.

We do not email you when the family approves or hides a tribute, so look for it here:

• Signed in when you wrote it? Open the notice, or Following in your account — both show where your tribute is.
• Wrote it without an account? The email we sent you has a private link to your tribute. It works for 30 days; if it has expired, ask for a new one below with the same email address.
• If the email did not arrive, check spam. The link only goes to the address you typed on the tribute.

Get a new link to my tributes

The family can choose not to show a tribute, and they do not have to say why. It is usually nothing to do with what you wrote — some families publish only messages from people they know, and some publish none at all. Your page will say "The family has reviewed it and it is not currently public."

If the notice has been taken down, its tributes are no longer shown anywhere, and new ones cannot be sent.

Waiting tributes are under Tributes in your account, with a count beside the tab. Approve one to show it on the notice, hide one to keep it private, or pin one to the top. You can hide a tribute later even after approving it. The morning summary can be turned off on your profile .