Open Web Distribution, honestly
If you're turning on Open Web Distribution to get in front of strangers, it won't do that. It gives your studio a handle people can follow, on a domain you control. That's a different job, and a more durable one.
Dated claim
Hold this as of October 2026
The domain is the identity
People follow @you@your-domain, and other servers remember that address. Moving to a different domain is an identity event, not a redirect.
Custom domain only
A {slug}.artinstack.com address is not a federation origin, so there is no handle to attach. The feature switches on once a custom domain is set.
What goes out
A public web JPEG (up to 2048 px, copyright metadata), the caption or description, and a link home. Vault files, RAW files, and originals never leave.
Delete is a request
ArtInStack sends a Delete when you remove a post. Servers it doesn't run decide whether to drop their copy, and removal there isn't guaranteed.
The one fact that matters
A follow is a subscription to your address. It is not a distribution engine. On the open web, discovery runs mostly on hashtags and on people finding each other, so a new handle starts with a small, interested audience and grows slowly. Anyone promising otherwise is describing a different kind of network.
What the handle does give you is the part social platforms don't: the work, the booking, and the commerce stay on the site you already run, and the post that travels outward carries a link back to it.
Instagram and Facebook are destinations, not channels
Open Web Distribution is a protocol: you publish from your own domain and people subscribe to your address. Instagram and Facebook are destinations: you post into an account the platform runs, under its rules. ArtInStack doesn't post into either. What it does is make your public URLs travel well. Facebook and Instagram can build a card from the page's Open Graph tags when someone pastes or shares the URL, and sites that read oEmbed can embed a public photo or gallery from the URL alone. Visitors can send a photo page to Facebook from the page itself, and a link in your Instagram bio to your public portfolio does the rest. For how those payloads differ from Open Web Distribution, see What leaves your site.
Choose the domain before you turn it on
Because the domain is baked into the handle, the order matters. Set the domain you intend to keep, then enable Open Web Distribution. A 301 on your website sends a browser to a new page; it doesn't move the people who followed the old address. If you're mid-migration or still choosing between domains, wait.
You choose what leaves
Nothing is published outward just because it's on your site. You pick the photographs and posts that go out, and the copy that travels is the public web derivative, never the original. Ship fewer strong pieces rather than every file in the library. That's the control, and it's a good one: if you wouldn't be comfortable with a 2048 px public version sitting on servers you don't run, don't share that piece.
The honest verdict
Turn it on if you want a followable studio presence without rebuilding your catalog on someone else's platform, and a modest audience is a fair trade for owning the address. Don't turn it on expecting reach this month, and don't treat it as a replacement for search, RSS, or a newsletter. Those are separate channels with their own jobs.
Follow the studio, not the platform
A followable address on a domain you control. Not an algorithm.
Also in Guides: What leaves your site · Hide from search, noindex, and private · Public vs private work