For members

Members' guide

For people who already belong to a BeanPool community. New here? Start on the home page. Running a community's server? Its manual is in your server's Settings: sign in and press Manual in the side bar.

About BeanPool

How BeanPool works, the rules and how decisions are made, common questions, and what is new.

• How BeanPool worksBeans, trading, offers and needs, and credit, in plain words.
• Rules and how decisions workVoting, turnout, secret ballots, who may vote, suspension, removing a member, keepers, and convenors and lead convenors.
• QuestionsShort answers to the questions members ask most.
• What's newWhat changed in the app, in plain words.

How to use the app

Getting started

Home, joining, finding a community near you, Beans and the global community, its limits, your 12 words, your profile, the top bar, this guide, getting help, using more than one community, and the web app.

• HomeWhat Home is, which cards it shows on the phone and in the web app, how to add, move or remove them, picking what you're into, and privacy when you sign out.
• Joining BeanPoolTwo ways in: a community, with an invite from a member, or the global community when it is open, with 12 secret words or one sign-in. Asking a community to let you in, and how to invite someone else.
• How this community worksThe rules and settings for your community: who can join, Beans, decisions, message requests, and safety.
• Finding a community near youFrom the global community, find a community near you and ask to join it, be told when one starts near you, or start one yourself.
• Beans and the global communityWhat 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.
• The global community's limitsThe global community is free, with a few limits that keep its cost flat. A listing is archived 90 days after it last changed. A listing has up to 5 photos, your phone keeps the nearest 500 listings, and you can watch 3 places.
• Your 12 wordsThe 12 words are the key to your account. Why they matter, where to find them, how to keep them safe, and adding a sign-in as a second way back.
• Your profileYour name, photo, a few words about you, and who can see your contact details.
• The top barThe bean, the small icons that show when something needs you, and the buttons at the top right.
• This guideWhere to find this guide, how to search it, and how it stays up to date.
• Getting helpWhere to look when you are stuck, and who to ask.
• More than one communityBelong to several communities with one account, switch between them, follow your community to a new address, and see what the global community shows you.
• Using BeanPool in a web browserThe web app does most of what the phone app does. Joining the global community in a browser, getting your account back there with your sign-in, putting the same account on your phone, and where the web app's buttons have different names.

Market

Finding and posting Offers and Needs, and how a deal works from start to finish.

• Browsing the marketFind Offers and Needs with search, filters and distance.
• Posting an Offer or a NeedPut up something you can do or give, or something you are looking for.
• Your ShopA front window on your own account, for the Offers you choose, under one name.
• Your dealsOne place for every trade you are in, every post you have up, and your past trades.
• A deal, step by stepFrom asking to getting paid, for an Offer and for a Need, and leaving a review.
• When a deal goes wrongCancelling a deal, and what happens when you cannot agree.
• Lending and borrowingThe Tool shed keeps what you own and might lend, and who has it. List a thing in the Market, lend it outside BeanPool, and see what is out.

Map

What the pins are, where yours goes, and finding things near you.

• What the map showsThe pins on the Map, what their colours mean, and the buttons around them.
• Where your pin goesWho sees where your posts and events are, and how to keep your home private.
• Finding things near youShow only posts within a distance of you, or of any place you choose.

Talk

Messages, groups and their chats, people and friends, event chats, muting, mentions, and a key that changed.

• MessagesStart a chat, send photos, reply, react, edit, delete, mute, and what is private.
• GroupsYour groups and their chats, talking in them, starting a group, inviting people, joining by invitation, and the group's own votes.
• People and friendsFind members of your community, add friends, and vouch for someone.
• Event chatTalk with the host and everyone going to an event.
• Muting a chatSilence a chat — one person's, a group's or an enterprise's — for 8 hours, a week, or for good.
• Mentions (@name)Alert someone in a group chat by writing @ and their name.
• If a chat says the key behind a name changedWhy a chat stops sending, how to check the key code with the person, and when to continue.

Pulse

What your neighbours share, the Learn videos, and adding your own channels.

• The PulseWhat your neighbours make and share elsewhere, in one feed.
• The Learn laneShort videos about BeanPool, and the guide pages they go with.
• Sharing your channelsPut your YouTube, blog, Instagram and other channels on the Pulse.

Commons

Decisions and voting, the shared beans, your groups, enterprises and keepers. Polls and events are here too; you find them in the Market.

• Voting on a DecisionFind open Decisions, vote, change your vote, and see results.
• Proposing a DecisionAsk the community to decide something binding.
• PollsAsk the community a quick question. Polls show opinion; they change nothing by themselves.
• EventsCreate an event, in a place or online, once or repeating; say you are going, be reminded, share it, and run it as the host.
• Projects and enterprisesShared ventures with their own beans: find one, back one, or start one.
• KeepersThe people who run an enterprise and stand behind it. How to join, object, and step down.
• The CommonsYour community's shared beans: where they come from, and how they are spent.

Ledger

Your balance, your credit line, gifts, trust badges, the limit per trading partner, and the circulation fee.

• Your balance and historyHow many beans you have, what is held, and every trade and gift.
• Your credit lineHow far below zero you can go, and how it grows.
• Sending a giftSend beans to someone, with no trade.
• Trust badgesNewcomer, Resident, Steward and Elder. What they mean, and why they unlock nothing.
• The 500-bean partner limitWhy trading with many people builds more trust than trading a lot with one.
• The circulation feeA small monthly fee on large balances, so beans keep moving. The first 200 are free.

Settings and safety

Privacy and what the admins and their AI assistants can see, your area, blocking and reporting, alerts, light and dark, Holiday Mode for going away, leaving, getting your account back, and checking your 12 words as an owner.

• Your privacyWhat others can see about you, and the settings that control it.
• Your areaThe rough place the global community uses to show you the listings near you, and how to change or clear it.
• What the admins can seeIn a community whose admins keep a names list: what it holds about you, who can read it, what your community's server keeps, and what being confirmed means.
• When an admin uses an AI assistantWhat an owner's or admin's AI assistant can read about you, what it never sees, and who receives it.
• Blocking someoneHide someone's posts and messages from you, and undo it later.
• Reporting a problemTell your community's moderators about a post, an event, a Pulse post, a project, an enterprise or a message in a group's chat.
• NotificationsChoose which alerts reach your phone, and when events remind you.
• Light and darkThe phone app starts light and the web app starts dark. Change it, or follow your device.
• Going awayHoliday Mode hides your Offers and pauses new requests while you are away.
• Leaving or deleting your accountSign out of this phone, or delete your account for good, and what happens to your beans.
• Getting your account backRestore your account on a new phone, and protect it with a sign-in account.
• Your 12 words and the server's keys (owners)For a community's owners. Checking your 12 words, taking over or restoring the server with your phone, and the check your phone makes by itself.

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 162.