Frequently Asked Questions

I recently submitted a tribute to your site, and I can’t find it on the View Tributes page. Why?

Why has my tribute been altered from the way I submitted it?

I want to remain anonymous, and I want the person to whom I am paying tribute to remain anonymous. Can I still submit a tribute?

Can I remove or alter a tribute after it has been posted?

Since posting my tribute, I have received unsolicited E-mail messages from other visitors to the site. How can I make it stop?

Does the person in my tribute have to be an eye donor?

This Web site is owned and maintained by the Midwest Eye-Banks and Transplantation Center (MEBTC), serving Illinois, Michigan and northwest Ohio. Will you accept tributes to donors from outside the Eye-Bank's service area?

Can I submit photos, artifacts, etc. to accompany my written tribute?

I recently submitted a tribute to your site, and I can’t find it on the View Tributes page. Why?

• Each tribute is manually reviewed before it is posted. Depending on the number of tributes received and the current availability of staff time, this may take several days. Your tribute may not have been added yet.
  
  
• Tributes must be converted into a "Web-ready" state. This means that any photos, special documents, etc. must be prepared for display on the Internet. If any scanning, photo editing or document revision is required, the addition of your tribute may be delayed slightly.
  
  
• If a donor name was not specified for the tribute, it may be indexed alphabetically by the title of the tribute instead.
  
  
• The "Add a Tribute" form may not have been completed properly.
  
  
• The tribute may have been deemed unsuitable for this site and rejected. Please review the Submission Guidelines for possible causes.
  
  

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Why has my tribute been altered from the way I submitted it?

• One or more of the items you submitted cannot readily be converted into a "Web-ready" format.
  
  
• The tribute, as submitted, did not comply with rules expressed in the Submission Guidelines.
  
  
• Certain items may display differently when viewed over the Internet. Photo quality, image sizes, fonts, etc. may be affected.
  
  

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I want to remain anonymous, and I want the person to whom I am paying tribute to remain anonymous. Can I still submit a tribute?

Yes. You are not required to enter your own personal information on the "Add a Tribute" form. However, if you choose not to enter this information, we cannot contact you to resolve questions or problems with your tribute, and this may prevent the tribute from being added. Regarding anonymity of the donor being honored, you are not required to enter her or his name. However, if you choose not to enter a donor name, you must enter a title for the submission. After your submission is prepared for posting, it will be indexed alphabetically by either the (a) donor name, if entered, or (b) submission title. In the same vein, if you enter a "bogus" name for the donor (i.e., "John Doe"), your submission will be indexed as "Doe, John". There may be multiple listings for "Doe, John" and you will have to sort through them to find the one you are looking for.

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Can I remove or alter a tribute after it has been posted?

• Tributes can be removed or changed only by our staff. If you would like your tribute removed or revised, please contact webmaster@donortribute.org. You may be asked to identify yourself for verification purposes.
  
  
• Removing or altering a tribute is not a routine operation. We strongly recommend that you check with family, friends, etc. before submitting, if you are uncertain about the appropriateness of any content.
  
  
• If you believe we have created an error in your tribute, please notify webmaster@donortribute.org and we will be happy to address the situation.
  
  
• Under most circumstances, we will allow you to add information or photos to an existing tribute. Bear in mind that additional content must go through the same review and (possibly) conversion process as any other submission. (see Submission Guidelines)

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Since posting my tribute, I have received unsolicited E-mail messages from other visitors to the site. How can I make it stop?

When you completed the "Add a Tribute" form, you were asked to specify whether your E-mail address should appear to other users. If you chose "Yes", then your E-mail address was made viewable. If you have since changed your mind, you can contact webmaster@donortribute.org and request that your E-mail address be removed from your tribute.

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Does the person in my tribute have to be an eye donor?

This Web site was created in honor of those who have chosen to give the Gift of Sight. Although non-eye donor submissions may not be excluded, we ask that you respect the unique nature of this gift, and those who make it possible, by limiting your submissions to individuals who have donated eye tissue or who expressed a desire to do so before their death. It is not necessary for the person's eye donation to have resulted in a transplant - the wish to save someone else's sight is what we are grateful for. It is also not necessary for the person to have been an "eye only" donor. In other words, if she or he donated multiple other tissues and/or organs, you are welcome to submit a tribute that honors the many life-enhancing and sustaining gifts your loved one made possible.

If you would like to honor someone who may not have been an eye donor, there are other online communities that may be more appropriate for your tribute. Please check our Resources section.

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This Web site is owned and maintained by the Midwest Eye-Banks and Transplantation Center (MEBTC), serving Illinois, Michigan and northwest Ohio. Will you accept tributes to donors from outside the Eye-Bank's service area?

It is possible we will accept tributes from outside our service area, but again we ask that you respect the people for whom this resource was created. We expect that most of our donors, donor families and transplant recipients reside within our service area of Illinois, Michigan and northwest Ohio. You, as the author of the tribute, need not live in this area, but there should at least be some "connection" to the Eye-Bank. In other words, perhaps the person you are honoring lived in our service area and donated eye tissue to the Illinois Eye-Bank, the Michigan Eye-Bank or the Watson Gailey Eye-Bank.

If you would like to honor someone from outside the Eye-Bank's service area, or someone who donated eyes, tissues or organs to another transplant organization, please check with your local service clubs or transplant community for tribute opportunities in other areas.

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Can I submit photos, artifacts, etc. to accompany my written tribute?

Yes. Consult the Submission Guidelines for suggestions on how to include such items in your online tribute.

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