--- title: Your network description: "Track subscribes to someone's updates. Connect is the two-way relationship that opens messaging. How requests work, and who can see your contact details." date: 2026-07-07 updated: 2026-08-25 author: Artsume Team tags: - artist - network - social url: "https://www.artsume.com/docs/your-network" type: docs --- # Your network # Your network Artsume is a professional network, so who you pay attention to matters as much as the work you make. There are two verbs, and they sit side by side on every profile. **Track** subscribes to someone's updates. **Connect** opens a relationship between the two of you. Both work on people and organizations alike. ![Track follows an organization's activity. Connect asks for a two-way relationship.](https://www.artsume.com/images/docs/demos/track-connect.png) ## Track Track is one-way and instant. Nobody approves it, it does not have to be mutual, and it shares nothing in either direction. Tracking puts someone's updates in the **Tracked** tab of your [Feed](/docs/feed). Track an organization and its new programs and announcements land there. Track an artist and their new works and CV lines land there too. The person or organization is told, by name, that you track them, and they can track you back in one tap. When you stop, nobody is told. To stop tracking, open the **More** menu on their profile and choose **Stop tracking**. The **Tracking** state itself is a quiet marker rather than a button, so you cannot undo it by accident. ## Connect Connect is the relationship, and it works for every pair: person to person, and person to organization. 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 tracking 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 accept." **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 track each other automatically. You do not have to track 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 tracking, and a decline does not undo it:** Pressing Connect tracks them right away. If they decline, or if you withdraw the request, that tracking stays. Use **Stop tracking** from their profile menu if you would rather not track them after all. ### 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: if they accept, 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](/docs/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 button Wherever a person or an organization appears, one control shows where you stand: - **Track** and **Connect**, side by side. The starting point. - **Tracking.** You track them. The **More** menu holds **Stop tracking**. - **Requested.** You asked and nobody has answered. Hover to withdraw. Withdrawing tells nobody, and you can ask again later. - **Connected.** Hover to disconnect. A **Message** action sits beside the button on people's profiles. The **More** menu also holds **Mute**, **Block**, and **Report**. Muting takes someone's activity out of your feed without telling them, and you go on tracking them. Blocking cuts both directions: they cannot track you or see your activity, you cannot see theirs, and unblocking later does not bring the tracking back. ### Disconnecting Disconnecting from **a person** takes you out of each other's networks and sends messaging back to a request. You go on tracking each other unless you also stop that. Disconnecting from **an organization** ends the connection and sends messaging back to a request. Their record of you stays on their Your artists list, now reading as no longer connected, and a channel you set to **Your connections** stops reaching them. If you have applied to them, they keep the contact details from that application, because those belong to the application, and an application also keeps your messaging open. ## 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. - **Tracking**: everyone you track, people then organizations. - **Tracks you**: the people tracking your work, each with a **Track back**. - **Requests**: connect requests waiting on you, and the ones you sent. - **Discover**: suggestions drawn from your discipline, your location, who your network tracks, 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. ## The Requests tab Requests holds both directions. **Waiting on you** lists everyone asking to connect, whether that is an organization or another artist, 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 track you. Tracking 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](/docs/messaging). ## 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 tracking you, with no extra step. [Your feed](/docs/feed) covers what that looks like from the other side. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Q: Can I connect with another artist?** A: Yes. Connect works for every pair on Artsume: person to person, and person to organization. Both sides have to agree, so the other person decides. **Q: Does connecting share my contact details?** A: With another person, no. With an organization, yes: the compose box tells you before you send that your contact details go to them if they accept. Your profile visibility settings are separate and cover who sees your email and phone there. **Q: Does tracking someone share my details with them?** A: No, and it never will. Tracking is one-way and moves nothing. It does tell them, by name, that you track their work. **Q: If I decline a connect request, does the sender find out?** A: No. Declining is silent. Their side goes on looking exactly like a request nobody has answered yet. **Q: Why is someone in my Tracking list that I don't remember tracking?** A: Asking to connect starts you tracking them in the same tap, and a decline or a withdrawal doesn't undo it. Submitting an application does the same with that organization. Use Stop tracking from their profile menu. **Q: What's the difference between untracking and disconnecting?** A: Untracking ends a one-way subscription and nothing else changes. Disconnecting ends the relationship: messaging goes back to a request, and with an organization you also come off their artists. **Q: Can I make my account private?** A: No. There's no private-account mode on Artsume and no approval step for who tracks you. You can hide individual works and CV lines, set a contact detail to Only me, mute someone, or block them. ## Related - [Your feed](/docs/feed): where the people you track actually show up - [Messaging](/docs/messaging): how conversations start, and how requests work - [Creating your profile](/docs/creating-profile): the living profile your network sees - [Sharing your profile](/docs/sharing-your-profile): bring people into your network - [Managing applications](/docs/managing-applications): the organizations you have applied to