Using BeanPool in a web browser

The 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, and where the web app's buttons have different names.

The same account, a different screen

Your community can also be used in a web browser, on a computer or a phone. This guide is written for the phone app. The web app works the same way, but some things are named or placed differently.

Joining global.beanpool.org in a browser

The global community at global.beanpool.org is open to anyone, and you can join it right there in a web browser. You need no invite and no phone app.

Before you join, the page shows Home, the Market and the Map as a visitor sees them: the public cards, listings, photos and roughly where they are, but no names, no faces and no exact places. Nothing there lets you post or reply until you join. Join is at the top of the page and in the card above the listings.

While the global community has only a few listings, its Market also shows a few cards marked Example. They are made up, to show what people post, and can't be opened. They go once there are enough real listings.

If you came from a link someone shared to a listing or an event, it opens first. Join from that page, and once you are in, it opens again, this time with who posted it.

Tap Join, then I'm new to BeanPool.
Choose the name people will see. It needs at least 2 letters, and at most 20.
Choose how to join. Create an account with 12 secret words needs no other account. Or, under Or sign in, sign in once with one of the accounts the page shows: Google, Apple or Facebook. The page takes you to that company's own sign-in and brings you back. Where the community takes sign-ins only, the page shows the sign-ins alone.
Then the same steps as everyone: a photo, your 12 words and a short tour. The bar at the top says Sign in (or Your Name, when you joined with 12 words), Your Photo, Safety Backup and How it Works.

Joining with 12 words. No Google, Apple or Facebook account is needed, and the community keeps nothing about you but your name and, for a day, a scrambled reference to the network you joined from. While you type your name, the page does a small piece of work for the community in the background, so nobody can make accounts endlessly fast. You don't wait for it: if you tap before it is done, the page says Setting up your account… with a bar of 8 steps. When lots of people are joining, it takes longer, and the page says about how long in this browser: signing in is quicker then. ← Choose another way goes back to both ways in, with the work still going. Your 12 words are then your only way back in. Nobody can reset them, not us and not the community: Safety Backup says so, and offers Add a sign-in as a second way back: you choose the sign-in at the end of the short tour, once your photo is saved (see "Adding a sign-in later" below). Both are up to you.

Joining with a sign-in. The community keeps only a scrambled reference to it, never your email or your name from that account. One sign-in account can join once.

The same sign-in is also kept as a way back to your account. While the page says Securing your account…, it locks a copy of your account, with its 12 words, and the join hands it to the community. That sign-in account can open it. The people who run the server can open it too, because their server checks your sign-in, as with a sign-in account linked on the phone app: see "Getting your account back". Settings then shows Sign-in recovery: connected and which one. If the copy can't be made or kept, you still join, and Settings says Sign-in recovery: not connected: your 12 words are then your only way back.

If you would rather the community did not keep that copy, the web app can't remove it yet. The phone app can, if your account is on your phone too: with the global community open, go to Settings, tap Account Protection, then Disconnect next to the sign-in. Either way, keep your 12 words safe: they are the way back that is yours alone.

If someone else here already has the name you chose, you get it with a number added. You can change it in Settings.

Already use BeanPool? Don't make a second account. After Join, choose I use BeanPool on my phone to link from the phone app, or I have my 12 words. If that account has not joined the global community yet, the page offers the same ways in (your 12 words, or a sign-in once), and it joins as the account you already have. If you joined the global community before with a sign-in, choose I joined with a sign-in before (see below).

If you close the page halfway, open it again within 10 minutes and it carries on with the same name.

One account per browser. If you join in two tabs at once, the second one says This browser already has an account and offers Open with that account's name. Nothing replaces it. If the second tab's join had gone through too, that account is kept on this browser as well, and Show (its name) 12 words shows its words: write them down if you want to keep it. To use it instead, sign out in Settings (Remove from This Device Only), then restore it with those words.

A join that went out comes first. If this browser sent a join that may have gone through, the page asks the community about it before anything else, even an invite or restoring another account. If you are in, you carry on. If it may still go through, the page asks you to wait a few minutes, then Check again. This holds even when the community has stopped taking new members.

If something goes wrong on the page after your join went out, it says so and offers Reload page. Your join is kept on this browser, and the reload checks whether you are in.

Many people joining from one network: when lots of new accounts come from one internet connection, joining asks a little more work of the browser rather than turning people away. Everyone on the same network counts together, so at a campus, an office or a meetup it may be other people joining, not you. Only past a very large number does the page say no for now, and how many minutes to wait. When it says that about 12-words accounts, joining with a sign-in still works.

A new account's limits

On the global community a new account has a few daily limits for its first 3 days, and until 3 of its posts have stayed up: 3 posts, 5 photos, and 10 new people to message in any 24 hours. An account made with 12 words alone has smaller ones for its first 7 days: 2 posts, 4 photos and 3 new people to message. Adding a sign-in moves it to the usual ones at once. Replying to someone who wrote to you first is never limited. See "Reporting a problem" for why.

After you join, a card called Your account is new shows how many of each are left and when more come back. Tap ✕ to put it away. It stays in Settings until the limits are over.
If you reach a limit, New Post or the chat says which one and when it lets up, and New Post shows the same card.
If the moderators have paused your posting, New Post and the chat say so, and a card called Posting paused says until when. It stays until the pause ends.
If the moderators hide or remove one of your posts, or pause your posting, while the web app is closed, the web app shows the alert the next time you open it, for up to 60 days. Each alert stays until you tap Acknowledge, and then it doesn't come back. If several are waiting, Close all puts them all away. If your account is on your phone too, the web app can show an alert you already saw there.

Your own local community has none of these limits.

Getting your account back with your sign-in

On the global community, the sign-in you joined with brings your account back to a browser: one whose saved data was cleared, or a new one on another computer. You get the same account, never a second one.

Tap Already have BeanPool?, then Use my sign-in. (After Join, I joined with a sign-in before does the same.)
A browser too old to hold a BeanPool account says so here instead of offering these, as it does in place of Join. Use an up-to-date Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge.
Type your name here. Tap your account when it shows.
Choose the sign-in you joined with: Google, Apple or Facebook. As when joining, the page takes you to that company's own sign-in and brings you back.
The page opens your account's locked copy in the browser, and checks that it really is the account you tapped. If it isn't, it says That isn't (the name) and saves nothing.
You're in, with your 12 words when the copy kept them: an account that joined in a browser always has them. If the copy didn't keep them, this browser doesn't have them, and Settings says so (see "Keep your 12 words" below).

Your account's devices are told that it is being brought back, in case it isn't you.

If you joined with GitHub, it can't bring your account back: BeanPool no longer uses GitHub (see "Getting your account back"). Use your 12 words instead.

If you sign in with an account that isn't the one you joined with, the page says so and lets you choose again. If you tap Join and sign in with an account that has already joined, the page says You're already here and offers Restore with (that sign-in).

One account per browser holds here too. If this browser already has another account, nothing replaces it: the page says This browser already has an account and offers to open it. To bring yours here instead, sign out of that one first. If this browser already has your account, the page says it is already here.

Adding a sign-in later

If you joined the global community with 12 words, they are your only way back. After you join, a card called One way back says so, with See my 12 words and Add a sign-in. Tap ✕ to put it away: it comes back once after one of your posts has stayed up, and once when your first week is over. It stays in Settings until you add a sign-in.

Tap Add a sign-in, then Google, Apple or Facebook. As when joining, the page takes you to that company's own sign-in and brings you back.
Settings opens and says whether it was added. From then on that sign-in also brings your account back: the community keeps a locked copy of your account for it, as when you join with a sign-in, and the people who run its server can open that copy. Your new-account limits become the usual ones at once.
A sign-in account that already has another BeanPool account here, or that belonged to an account the community removed, can't be added: the page says so, and nothing changes.

Different names and places

Joining with an invite: the first step's button says Create Identity & Join →. If someone here already has the name you chose, you get it with a number added. ← Back on Your Photo shows your name alone, with Next →: change it (up to 20 characters) or keep it, on the same account. If someone already has the new name, the page says so and suggests others.
Tabs: the web app has Home, Market, Map, Commons, Chat, People and Ledger. What the phone app calls Talk is Chat on the web, and People has its own tab.
Settings and your profile: the two small buttons at the top right. On a wide screen they are at the bottom of the menu on the left.
Posting an Offer or a Need: use New Post on the Map page.
Appearance: the choice is called Same as device instead of "Same as phone".
Blocking: Settings says Manage Blocked Members. Your community keeps your blocks with your account, so they come back when you sign in on any browser, and signing out leaves nothing about them on the computer. The people who run your community's server can see whom you blocked. Blocking and unblocking need a connection: without one, the web app says so and nothing changes. Blocks made in the phone app stay on the phone and do not show here.
Chats: the web chat has Report and Block buttons at the top.

What the web app does not have

Getting your account back with a sign-in on a community other than the global one. There, your 12 words bring it back, or linking from the phone app if your account is on your phone too.
The Pulse's Learn lane.
The phone's app lock.
Signing in to your community's Settings with your own key, for owners and admins. The web app's Manage link opens Settings, but a browser has no unlock of its own. On the computer, choose Sign in with your phone in Settings and scan the code with the phone app (Settings, then Manage this community from a computer; older apps: Sign in on a computer).

Using your phone account on a computer

In the web app on the computer, choose to link with the mobile app. It shows a QR code.
On the phone, open Settings and tap Use your account on another device (older apps: Link Another Device).
Point the phone's camera at the QR code, tap Confirm & Link Device and pass your phone's lock screen check. Your account goes to the computer only after that.

Installing it

The web app may offer Install BeanPool so it opens from your home screen like an app. If your browser cannot do that, tap How? for steps.

Keep your 12 words

Browsers sometimes clear saved data, for example Safari after a week without a visit. Until you have looked at your 12 words, the web app's Settings shows a warning with View & Save Recovery Phrase. Do it, and write them down.

A browser that got your account back with a sign-in whose copy didn't keep your 12 words doesn't have them, so it shows no such warning. There, View Recovery Phrase says Not saved in this browser, and opens a page that says what brings your account back instead: your 12 words, if you have them written down, or the sign-in Settings shows as connected. With neither, only the phone app can, if your account is on your phone too. Remove from This Device Only says the same before you sign out.

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 112.