Finding a community near you

From the global community, find a community near you and ask to join it, be told when one starts near you, or start one yourself.

Why a local community

The global community is where people from everywhere meet. A local community is where neighbours trade: it has its own Beans, trades and Commons. On the global community you can see how those work, in an example community marked 🏘️ Local community, but nothing there earns or spends Beans. So a post there says in its description what the person would like in return: free, a swap, or ask them. See "Beans and the global community".

The global community is one community among many. Your own community runs on its own server and never needs it: the global community only helps you find it.

No community near you yet? You can start one: see "Nothing near you", below.

Communities near you

On the global community, the Find your community card on Home shows the communities nearest you. For your first 30 days it stays near the top of Home and can't be removed or moved. After your first 30 days it stays while a request to join is waiting for an answer or you have a watch for a community near you. When a community no longer holds your request, the card says so; tap Got it and the card can be moved or removed again. In the web app, each community on the card is a link to its own page, with Ask to join under it. If it doesn't know where you are, tap Share my area, or or type your town and pick your town. The steps below are for the phone app.

Not in the global community yet? Tap the bean at the top left and, under Your communities, tap Global community, then join it with the account you have: see "More than one community". With no account yet, tap Explore BeanPool worldwide on the app's first screen: see "Joining BeanPool". Or, if you know a community's address, ask it directly: see "Asking with no account yet", below.

Tap Communities near you to see the whole list.
Communities are listed nearest first when the app knows where you are. If it doesn't, tap Use my location, or search by name. Rather not share your location? Tap or type your town, start typing, and pick your town from the list: only a rough point is kept, and change picks another.
Communities at about the same distance from you are shuffled, so no one community is always at the top.
Each one shows how far away it is and how many members it has, when the community has said.

A community that hasn't published its address is listed, but it can't be asked from here yet.

Not answering lately

Each community's server tells the BeanPool directory about itself every few hours. When a community's server hasn't done that for more than a day and a half, the community says Not answering lately under its name: in the app, in the web app and on the map at beanpool.org. Its server may just be off for a while. It is still listed, and you can still ask to join: your request reaches it when it answers.

A community whose server stays silent for a week is no longer listed, and comes back when its server is in touch again. A community can also take itself off the list at any time. The list shows only communities that give you somewhere to go: a web address, or a way to contact them.

Asking to join

Tap Ask to join on a community.
Check your name, and write a few words about yourself, up to 280 characters: where you live, what you would like to share or learn.
Tap Send.

Your request goes straight to that community, not through the global community, with your name, your words and your picture. Only its members see it. Where the community lets only its admins invite, only its owners and admins see it. A member there can let you in: they tap Invite, and an invite is made that only your account can use.

While you wait, the waiting card on Home shows when you asked (You asked to join {name} on {date}.) and whether your request arrived (Your request arrived.), and the community's own card says You asked to join. No answer yet. Communities usually answer within a few days. You can have one request open with each community, and each community takes only a few requests a day from one internet connection.

If you change your mind while waiting, tap Cancel my request. The request is really withdrawn, and you can ask again after 24 hours.

When an admin or member invites you, you get a notification: A community answered your request. Your phone checks for an answer in the background every 15 minutes when the app isn't open.

If nobody answers within 30 days, the card says This request is no longer open. You can ask again.

If a community can't take your request, the card shows its own words, for example that too many requests came from your network today, or that it isn't taking requests to join right now.

Asking with no account yet

You don't need an account, or the global community, to ask a community you know. On the phone app:

On the first screen, tap Know a community near you? Ask to join it.
Type the community's address, such as riverside.example.org, or tap Scan a code and point the camera at its code. The camera is asked for only then. The list of communities near you shows once you have an account.
Tap Ask to join, check your name, write a few words about yourself, and tap Send.

Sending makes your account on this phone: a key, with 12 words that bring it back. Nothing from the BeanPool project is needed, and the request goes only to that community. Your 12 words are shown to you when a community lets you in, as for any new account.

Until a community answers, the app's first screen shows your requests: Waiting for {name}: usually a few days. From there:

Check again asks the communities whether they have answered.
Ask another community opens the same screen again.
Join with an invite is for an invite someone gave you. It uses the same account.
Already a Member? Restore Account brings back an account you already have. That replaces the one on this phone, after asking you first.

When a community says yes, the first screen says {name} said yes. Join now. Tap Join with its name, choose your photo, and write down your 12 words.

When they say yes

The card says A member invited you. Tap Join with the community's name.

Your account comes with you: the same key and the same 12 words. Your name comes too. If someone there already has it, a number is added, such as "Sarah2". You can change it in the next step.
Your posts, chats and trades stay in each community. On the new one you start fresh.
Next you check your name and photo for the new community.
A sign-in account you linked to get back into your account works in the new community too: BeanPool keeps one copy for all your communities.

You stay a member of the global community, and can switch between them: see "More than one community".

A post someone shared with you

A member of a community can share one of its posts with you outside BeanPool: a link in a chat or a message. It opens that one post, in the app if you have it and in your web browser if not. It shows what the post is, its photos, its price and roughly where it is, and says that a member of that community shared it with you. Names and faces appear only once you join that community.

From there you can Ask to join that community, Get the app, or Look around the global community. If the link says This link has stopped working, the person who shared it stopped it, it ran out after 7 days, or the post is gone: ask them for a new one.

Nothing near you

Tell me when one starts here: you get a notification when a community starts near where you are. Only the area is kept, about 10 km across, never where you are exactly. You can watch up to 3 places, and stop watching one with Stop.
I'd help start one here: the same watch, saying you would help too. Only the area is kept, the same way, and it counts toward your 3 places. If 3 or more people near you say so, you are put in a place circle together (below).
Start a community: every community has its own small server, looked after by someone local. It takes a spare computer at home or a few dollars a month, and about half an hour: see "Beans and the global community". The app shows three ways to run one: a spare computer at home, a small rented server, or asking for help. Fill in the name, the place and how people can reach you, and tap Copy my community's details to paste them into your new server's settings. How people can reach you stays off the public directory unless you turn it on there.

A place circle

A place circle is an ordinary group on the global community for people waiting near the same place. When 3 or more people within about 25 km have tapped I'd help start one here, you are put in one together, and you get a notification: People near you want to start a community. It is in your groups, and on Home's Find your community card.

Only the people in a circle can see it. They see each other's names and pictures, and nothing about where anyone is except that they are within about 25 km. Anyone else sees a count, and only once it is 3 or more: 7 people near you would help start a community. The count is of a fixed area on the map, so it may leave out someone just over its edge.

Say hello, and meet in a public place first. Its chat works like any group's chat: you can report a message, and block someone. If you leave a circle, you are not put back in, unless you tap I'd help start one here again. Someone you have blocked is not put in a circle with you.

The card has three rows:

How many people are here, such as 4 people here. Under 3, it says nothing.
Start a community: what it takes, and how to begin.
I'm starting one here: tell the others you are doing it. Everyone else then sees Someone is starting a community near you. Tap I'm not starting one after all if plans change. After 90 days with no community it goes by itself.

Tap Remind me to join when it starts and your app remembers it, on your device only. It sends nothing by itself.

When a community starts near the circle, the card says so, with an Ask to join button. Nothing goes to that community until you tap it: no request, and no check on it. One tap sends your own request, from your device to the new community. If the new community can't take it yet, the card says so, and you can tap Ask to join again later. If the community refuses it, the card says that too, and you can ask them yourself.

When a listed community starts within about 25 km, everyone in the circle is told, and the card says This circle did its job. Its chat stays for 30 days. After that the circle closes: you can still read it, but nobody can write in it.

If you are a member of a local community

People can ask to join your community from the global community, or from the phone app's first screen with your community's address. When someone asks, owners and admins get a notification (Someone asked to join your community.) and a count on Home under Needs you (2 people asked to join). In a community where any member can invite, members who turned on Requests to join under Notification Preferences are notified too, and if nobody answers within 3 days, the count is shown to every member on Home so someone can welcome them.

The notification opens the phone app. Tapping the line opens People, then Invites, in whichever app you are using. To go there yourself, tap Chat, then People, then Invites in the phone app, or open People, then Invites in the web app. Requests are listed under Wants to join, with their name, their words and where they came from, and the same two buttons in both apps.

Invite: makes an invite that only their account can use. Their app finds it by itself, and they join with one tap.
Not now: they are not told. They keep seeing "no answer yet", and can't ask again for 30 days.

Any member can answer, whatever their trust badge, unless the community chose that only its admins invite (Known, under Who may invite in the community server's Settings). Then only its owners and admins see the requests and answer them. A community's admins can turn requests to join off.

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 165.