Your network
Follow subscribes to someone's updates. Connect is the two-way relationship that opens messaging. How requests work, and who can see your contact details.
Your Artsume profile gives people a place to understand your work and career. Connections help you continue the conversation. There are two verbs. Follow subscribes to someone's updates. Connect is the relationship that opens messaging. Follow works on people and organizations alike. Connect is how two people agree to know each other; with an organization, a message does the same job.
Follow
Follow is one-way and instant. Nobody approves it, it does not have to be mutual, and it shares nothing in either direction.
Following puts someone's updates in the Following tab of your Feed. Follow an organization and its new programs and announcements land there. Follow an artist and their new works and CV lines land there too.
The person or organization is told, by name, that you follow them, and they can follow you back in one tap. When you stop, nobody is told.
To stop, press Following on their profile. It unfollows straight away, with no confirmation step. The More menu holds the same action wherever the profile is too small to show it.
Connect with a person
Connect is the relationship between two people. It is the one thing on Artsume that both sides have to agree to.
Asking. Press Connect and a short compose box opens, headed Add a message (optional). Write a line about why you are getting in touch, or send it empty. Asking also starts you following them in the same tap, so your request never arrives from someone they cannot see.
One message, then wait. The line you send is your one message until they answer. Until then the composer stays locked and reads "You can message after they answer."
Answering. Accepting connects you. So does writing back, because a reply counts as an acceptance. Declining is silent: the person who asked is never told, and their view goes on looking exactly like an unanswered request.
Once connected, you can message each other freely, you appear in each other's networks, and you follow each other automatically.
There is no cold message to a person. Message appears on their profile once you are connected, and not before. Picking an unconnected person in the message composer opens the Connect box instead.
You do not have to follow someone before asking to connect. Both buttons are offered from the start, and neither is a step toward the other.
Connect requests are capped at 20 in any 24 hours, which is well past what deliberate outreach needs.
Asking starts the following, and a decline does not undo it
Pressing Connect follows them right away. If they decline, or if you withdraw the request, that follow stays. Press Following on their profile if you would rather not follow them after all.
Write to an organization
You do not connect with an organization. You follow it, and you write to it.
An organization's profile carries Follow and Message. Press Message and the compose box opens. Your first message is a request, and sending it starts you following them. While it waits, the header reads Message sent and the composer stays locked.
Their answer connects you. An Accept press and a written reply both count. Once connected you can message each other freely, and your contact details reach them according to the settings below.
An organization writes to you the same way. Its first message is a request, and your answer connects the two of you. An organization can also invite you to apply to a program; accepting that invitation connects you as well.
What connecting shares
Connecting with another person moves no contact details. It opens messaging and puts you in each other's networks, and that is all.
Connecting with an organization is different, and the compose box says so before you send: once you are connected, your contact details go to that organization. What actually reaches them depends on the setting on each channel, described below. A channel set to Your connections starts serving that organization the moment you connect, and a channel set to Only me still serves nothing.
Who can see your contact details
Your contact email and your phone number each carry their own setting, and that setting governs both your public page and what an organization reads on its own roster. Open Edit profile and look under Contact & links for Email visible to and Phone visible to. Each offers three audiences:
- Anyone. Everyone, whether or not they have an Artsume account.
- Your connections. Only the people and organizations you are connected with.
- Only me. Nobody else.
New accounts start with the email set to Your connections and the phone set to Only me. Change either whenever you like. Organizations read your live details rather than a stored copy, so updating your email updates it everywhere at once, and narrowing a setting takes that channel back the same way.
Applying to a program works differently, deliberately. When you submit an application, the contact details on it travel with it as a snapshot the organization keeps with its record of that application. The snapshot belongs to the application, not to the relationship. Disconnecting later does not recall it, and neither does narrowing your visibility settings. See Applying to programs.
A message is just a message. Details you type into a conversation stay with the person you sent them to.
The relationship controls
Where a person or an organization appears in a list, one control shows where you stand: Follow if you do not follow them yet, and a ⋯ menu if you do. The menu holds Unfollow, and on a person it also holds Mute, Block, and Report.
A profile shows more, because a profile is where the relationship is made:
- A person's profile carries Connect and Follow, side by side, from the first visit. Once you ask, Connect becomes Request sent; the More menu holds Withdraw request. Once you are connected, Message takes its place and a Connected mark sits beside their name.
- An organization's profile carries Follow and Message. While a first message waits, Message reads Message sent. Once you are connected, a Connected mark sits beside the organization's name.
Following is a button, so one press undoes the follow. Every other state changes through the More menu, which is where Disconnect lives too.
Muting takes someone's activity out of your feed without telling them, and you go on following them. Blocking cuts both directions: they cannot follow you or see your activity, you cannot see theirs, and unblocking later does not bring the follow back.
Disconnecting
Disconnecting from a person takes you out of each other's networks and sends messaging back to a request. You go on following each other unless you also stop that.
Disconnecting from an organization ends the connection and sends messaging back to a request. Contact details you share with connections stop reaching them. Their record of you stays on their Your artists list, now reading as no longer connected. If you have applied to them, they keep the contact details from that application, because those belong to the application.
The Network page
Your network lives at /network, with five tabs:
- Connections: everyone you are connected with, organizations first and people below. Both live here.
- Following: everyone you follow, people then organizations.
- Followers: the people following your work, each with a Follow back.
- Requests: connect requests and first messages waiting on you, and the ones you sent.
- Discover: suggestions drawn from your discipline, your location, who your network follows, and the programs an organization runs. Each suggestion says why it is there.
Invite an organization sits in the header, for the organizations you work with that are not on Artsume yet.
Your Following and Followers lists are yours alone. Nobody else can open them, and no profile anywhere shows a follower or connection count.
The Requests tab
Requests holds both directions.
Waiting on you lists everyone asking to connect and every organization writing to you for the first time, each with Accept and Decline. Accepting opens messaging both ways and puts you in each other's networks. Declining is silent.
You asked lists the requests you sent that nobody has answered, each with Withdraw. Withdrawing tells them nothing.
There are no requests to follow you. Following is instant in both directions, so there is nothing to approve.
A person's request also lands in Messages
When another artist asks to connect, their note is a message, so it also appears under Requests in your messenger with the note attached. Accept it, decline it, or just write back. See Messaging.
Who can see your connections
Your connections list is open to the people you are connected with. It shows people and organizations together, and it never says how either connection started. Anyone else signed in sees only the connections the two of you share, and an invitation to connect with you.
On a profile you are signed in to view, up to three faces show the connections you and that person both have. Nothing there is a total.
Keeping your profile living
Your updates are derived from what you do rather than posted, so the way to stay present in your network's feed is to keep your profile current. Every portfolio work and every CV line you add surfaces to the people following you, with no extra step. Your feed covers what that looks like from the other side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I connect with another artist?
Yes. Connect is the relationship between two people, and both sides have to agree, so the other person decides.
Can I connect with an organization?
Not with a Connect button. You follow an organization and you write to it, and their answer to your first message connects you. Applying to a program, a confirmed CV credit, and an accepted invitation all connect you at once.
Does connecting share my contact details?
With another person, no. With an organization, yes: the compose box tells you before you send that your contact details go to them once you are connected. Your profile visibility settings are separate and cover who sees your email and phone there.
Does following someone share my details with them?
No, and it never will. Following is one-way and moves nothing. It does tell them, by name, that you follow their work.
If I decline a connect request, does the sender find out?
No. Declining is silent. Their side goes on looking exactly like a request nobody has answered yet.
Why is someone in my Following list that I don't remember following?
Asking to connect starts you following them in the same tap, and a decline or a withdrawal doesn't undo it. Submitting an application does the same with that organization. Press Following on their profile to undo it.
What's the difference between unfollowing and disconnecting?
Unfollowing ends a one-way subscription and nothing else changes. Disconnecting ends the relationship: messaging goes back to a request, and with an organization your connections-only contact details stop reaching them.
Can I make my account private?
No. There's no private-account mode on Artsume and no approval step for who follows you. You can hide individual works and CV lines, set a contact detail to Only me, mute someone, or block them.
Related
- Your feed: where the people you follow actually show up
- Messaging: how conversations start, and how requests work
- Creating your profile: the living profile your network sees
- Sharing your profile: bring people into your network
- Managing applications: the organizations you have applied to