A spoopy theme for Discourse ๐Ÿ’€

ืกื™ื›ื•ื ืžื‘ื•ืกืก ื‘ื™ื ื” ืžืœืื›ื•ืชื™ืช

awesomerobot introduced Spoopy, a Halloween-themed Discourse theme that transforms the forum into a haunted wood with features like fog, cobwebs, flying bats, and a mouse-pointer flashlight. The theme includes extensive customization options for elements such as gravestone composers, skull spinners, and pumpkin likes, while ensuring accessibility through reduced motion support. A bonus animated loading screen is also provided in the repository.

The community responded enthusiastically, with users like scavin adopting it for their forums and Jagster praising its mobile compatibility. Several users noted the โ€œspoopyโ€ meme reference in the original post, leading to a lighthearted exchange about internet culture. Recently, awesomerobot updated the theme to include custom chat sounds, leveraging a newly merged API.

:information_source: Summary A dark, moonlit Halloween theme with gnarled branches, bats, fog, a grave composer, and more! Bring your flashlight!
:eyeglasses: Preview Theme Creator
:hammer_and_wrench: Repository https://github.com/awesomerobot/discourse-spoopy-theme
:question: Install Guide How to install a theme or theme component
:open_book: New to Discourse Themes? Beginnerโ€™s guide to using Discourse Themes

Install this theme

Spoopy turns your community into a haunted wood after dark. Bats flit past, fog rolls in, a will-oโ€™-wisp drifts through the branches, and your mouse pointer becomes a flickering flashlight.

Whatโ€™s included

Look and feel

  • Halloween palette: midnight plum, bone, and pumpkin orange.
  • Fonts: Georgia for all text, with IM Fell English (a weathered serif) for titles and headings.
  • Gnarly lines: hand-drawn, uneven rules and outlines instead of plain borders. Theyโ€™re used across topic lists, posts, the sidebar, chat, buttons, and every layout of the categories page.
  • Header: a thicket of dead branches, haunted by a will-oโ€™-wisp.

The composer

  • Gravestone shape: on desktop, the composer rises from the depths, set between heaps of freshly dug dirt.

Atmosphere

  • Bats flap across the screen at different depths, now and
  • A ghost peeks up from the bottom of the screen every so often.
  • Fog rolls slowly along the bottom of the page.
  • Cobwebs hang in the corners.
  • A spider rests in its web and occasionally drops down on
  • A flashlight follows your mouse pointer, a pool of warm age a little in shadow. The topic timelineโ€™s candle casts its own small pool of light.

Lots of other little touches throughout!

Settings

Every effect can be switched off individually:

Setting What it does
serif_text Uses Georgia for all text
spooky_fonts Uses IM Fell English for headings and titles (loaded from Google Fonts)
header_branches Fills the header with a thicket of dead branches
will_o_wisp A will-oโ€™-wisp drifts through the branches in the header
gravestone_composer On desktop, shapes the composer like a gravestone
crumbling_composer Dirt crumbles off the gravestone composer as it opens (needs gravestone_composer)
flying_critters Bats fly across the screen
peeking_ghost A ghost peeks up from the bottom of the screen now and then
graveyard_fog Fog rolls along the bottom of the screen
cobwebs Cobwebs in the corners of the screen
dangling_spider A spider rests in the top-right web and drops down now and then
flashlight_pointer A pool of light follows the mouse pointer (mouse only, not on touch devices)
candle_timeline Makes the topic timelineโ€™s handle a lit candle
pumpkin_likes Replaces the like heart with a jack-oโ€™-lantern
skull_spinner Replaces the loading spinner with a wobbling skull

Accessibility

  • Reduced motion: all motion stops for visitors who have reduced motion set in their browser.

Bonus animated loading screen

The repository includes splash/nightmare-splash.svg, an animation with bats flapping across a full moon. Themes canโ€™t set it automatically.

To use it, upload the file to the splash_screen_image site setting.

Spoopy | Know Your Meme :winking_face_with_tongue:

19 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

Very cool, I am enjoying it. Thank you!

ืœื™ื™ืง 1

This is so cool! Iโ€™ve added it to our forum as a limited-time theme for Halloween! :jack_o_lantern:

2 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

Honestly, the theme is way too cool for Halloween :clap: @awesomerobot . Well done on this great gift to the community :+1:

Thanks, I got some inspiration for mine :wink:

7 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

lol I just assumed there was a typo, fixed it, then undid the fix

3 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

Special thanks for that. Not because it is another nice season theme, but it looks great and it works on mobiles too!

ืœื™ื™ืง 1

coughs 'Hidden Whispers' theme here on Meta? :man_detective:

2 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

i actually did the same right after he posted the topic. i had to google โ€œspoopyโ€ to learn moreโ€ฆ

ืœื™ื™ืง 1

4 ืœื™ื™ืงื™ื

Today we merged an API for custom chat sounds, so Iโ€™ve made an update to the theme that adds a few options that you can find in forum.example.com/my/preferences/notifications

ืœื™ื™ืง 1