Beans and the global community

What the global community is for, one community among many, and what you see there: the 🏘️ Local community marker, the example community Example Valley, why Beans wait there, and how to start or find a local community.

What the global community is for

The global community is where most people first meet BeanPool. Anyone can join it, from anywhere, with 12 words or a sign-in.

It is a place to see what BeanPool is, and then to start a local community near you, or to join one.

The global community is one community among many. Your own community runs on its own server and never needs it. BeanPool runs the global community; every local community has its own server and its own owners, and would keep working in full if the global community went away. The global community keeps nothing of your community but what your community chose to show in the list of communities near you.

Helping each other comes first

BeanPool is neighbours helping neighbours. You offer what you can do or spare, and ask for what you need.

You can do that on the global community today:

post something free or for swap, or ask for help;
message people, and join groups and events;
start a poll, to see what people think.

A local community adds a record of who helped whom, in Beans. Help earns Beans, and getting help spends them. So help can go round in circles: you help one neighbour, another neighbour helps you, and nobody has to pay back the same person.

The 🏘️ Local community marker

Some parts of BeanPool live in a local community:

Beans and your Ledger;
deals, where the Beans are held safely until the job is done;
enterprises, and the Commons' shared Beans;
Decisions, the votes that bind a community;
invites.

On the global community these are not hidden. They are shown with one marker: 🏘️ Local community. It means "this works in a local community today, and here is what it looks like".

The marker is never a lock. Nothing is wrong with your account, and there is nothing to earn or pay to use it.

You meet it in a few shapes:

a small label on a screen or a card;
a box across the top of an example screen;
a button that keeps its place, such as Request · Beans held safely 🏘️ on a listing;
one line where a local community is different, such as "🏘️ In a local community this is a price in Beans ›".

Tap any of them to open Why this lives in a local community. It says why in a sentence or two, then offers Start a community and, where it can, Communities near you and How it works.

Example Valley

The screens with the marker show Example Valley: a made-up community, so you can see a local community's screens with something on them.

Ledger: an example member with 85 Beans, room to spend down to −200, a trust badge, and a few recent trades, such as bread, an hour of gardening and some seedlings.
Commons: the Example Valley Bakery, an enterprise its members keep, and one Decision: a compost bay, paid for from the Commons' shared Beans.
My Deals, in the Market: three example deals: one waiting on you, one with the Beans held safely, and one done.

Nobody in Example Valley has a name. You see "a neighbour", "the Commons" or "the Example Valley Bakery". None of it is real, and none of it is yours.

The ⓘ buttons and the guide pages on these screens are the real ones: they say how it works in a local community.

A button that would send Beans, make a deal, vote, pledge or invite opens Why this lives in a local community instead. It sends nothing and changes nothing.

The box at the top of an example screen has a ✕. Tap it and the box shrinks to one line, "🏘️ An example · Why? ›". Your phone or browser remembers that, for this community. On the phone, tap the line to open the box again. In the web app, tap the line to see why, or ▾ to open the box again.

In a web browser you can see the example Ledger before you join: it is a tab beside Home, Market and Map.

Why Beans wait on the global community

Beans are a promise between people who can be found again. The Beans you earn say that your community owes you some help back.

That only works where people can vouch for who's who. On the global community anyone may join with 12 words, so nobody can do that yet. One person could make several accounts, give themselves Beans, and never be found again.

So the global community has no Beans, no deals, no enterprises and no Decisions. Nothing you do there earns or spends Beans, and nobody there owes anyone.

Polls still work there. They show what people think, and decide nothing.

Invites stay off on the global community. Its open door is the way in.

If the global community can one day check who's who, some of these may switch on there, one at a time. Until then, they are live today in every local community.

Start a community

A local community runs on its own small server, looked after by someone local. That can be you.

What it costs: a spare computer that stays on at home, or a small rented server for a few dollars a month. The software is free.
Who runs it: you do, on your own machine or the one you rent. It doesn't need beanpool.org: it can have its own web address.
What you take on: reports from your members come to you. The community's data is yours to back up, with a recovery code. Keep two owners, and keep the server on and up to date.
What you never see: your members' chats with one person. They are locked so the server can't read them.
How long: about half an hour, for someone who can follow a recipe.

To begin, tap Start a community in any Why this lives in a local community sheet, or, on the phone, on Home's Find your community card. It shows three ways to run one: a spare computer at home, a small rented server, or asking for help on the global community. Copy my community's details copies your community's name, place and how people can reach you, to paste into your new server's settings.

The steps are in "First-time setup", in the guide for people who run a community, on beanpool.org. When your server is up, you claim it with your phone: point the phone's camera at the QR code your server shows, or in BeanPool tap Set up a new community server (in Find a community or Start a community), then Scan the code. Settings then helps you name your community, add a second owner and make your first invites. Set your community's place in Settings too, so that people near you can find it.

Join one near you

On the phone:

Communities near you lists the communities nearest you that chose to be listed.
Tap Ask to join: a member there can let you in. Where the community lets only its admins invite, an owner or admin does.
Nothing near you yet? Tell me when one starts here tells you when one does.

In the web app, Home's Find your community card links each community near you to its own page.

Your account comes with you, with the same 12 words, and you stay a member of the global community. See "Finding a community near you".

In a local community

Everything the marker shows is real there. Your Ledger shows your own balance, starting at zero. A deal holds Beans safely until the job is done, and a Decision binds.

There is no 🏘️ marker there, and nothing from Example Valley comes with you.

The same guide is in the BeanPool app, and works there without a connection: open Settings, then "Help & how it works" under BeanPool. Every other rule, guide and manual is in the Help Centre. Guide version 149.