Central Roost News

Yesterday we conducted a Central Roost user feedback session. We organized this small, informal get together to gather insight from some of our members about their experiences with the website. Our goal with Central Roost is to add features and functionalities that are going to be of value to our users so it is important for us to find out what people like and don’t like.

Photos: Serious feedback and not so serious feedback

The feedback session started out with formal questions and then we let our users show us how they use the site. Their favorite features were the discussion board and photos galleries. They enjoy browsing, being a part of the community, and seeing what REAL people are doing with their homes. The areas of the site they use least are My Notebook and the Searching. They suggested making new content easier to find and their pet peeve is the “Search the Roost” box at the top of the page (it never goes where they expect). We are extremely grateful to our two users who spared us some of their precious time to respond to our questions and offer their commentary and most importantly, provide a sense of humour (we like our users to have fun).

Keep an eye out for a few changes as a result of this feedback session. If you have any comments you would like to share please email us: info@centralroost.com

To tag or not to tag, that is the question….. When we started seeing all the awesome photos in the Home Gallery we decided we definitely wanted TO TAG.

Many of the big social networking sites like Flickr and del.icio.us have introduced tagging as a way of organizing data. Users add a free form list of tags to a piece of data. For example, if I posted the following photo:

I would specify the following list of tags: earthtones, “chair rail”, couches, armoire, “hardwood floors”, curtains. Then when others are searching for photos (say, of couches) mine would appear in the results. This list would be different if you thought other tags are more appropriate. The idea is that you decide how to categorize your photos.

How to add tags in Central Roost

1. Upload photos of your home under My Roost > My Homes > Your Home > Photo Gallery

2. In the menu choose “Edit Caption/Tags”

3. Enter your tags in the Tags box. Multiple word tags should be surrounded by quotes.

That’s it, your photo has now been tagged. At the moment this feature is only available for homes, not projects.

How to search for tagged photos in the Home Gallery

1. Go to the Home Gallery > Advanced Search

2. Enter the tag you want to search for in the Description, Photo Caption or Tags box

3. Select the Search all home photos radio option

4. Submit your search and you will get the following results

Here are some of our favorite tag searches:

Room: Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Office Nursery
Object: Fireplace Couch Counter Tile
Color: Pastels Neutrals Earthtones Primary Colors
Outdoor: Garden Deck Fence

Hats off this week to two recent Central Roost members ( ‘Roosters’, as we like to call them!) who recently posted gallery photos that were modified using various computer applications. These individuals have taken creativity to a whole new level when it comes to displaying their interior design and home improvement photos.
See how Rooster Deedlerock used Paintshop Pro to create a mock-up of her future exterior home renovations and member Bookyeti applied text additions to her photos to share greater detail of her new kitchen renovation.
Bookyeti Home: Our Pemberley

Deedlerock’s home: Hillcrest

In addition to creativity, we appreciate humour. Rooster Sischick and her home ‘Don’s Bachelor Pad’, reminds some of us of the places we use to enjoy before there was commitment, mortgages and kids. Check out this Rooster’s witty commentary and photos.

Don’s Bachelor Pad