What would you like done?
I run a free community for media buyers and entrepreneurs.
I’m setting up a Discourse forum hosted on Communiteq (Professional plan) and I need someone to configure everything so the end result looks and feels as close to Skool as possible, but using official/maintained themes and components, not a full custom theme.
Here’s the full scope:
Theme & UX (Skool-like feed)
- Base theme: Horizon (official) + components to get a social-feed look
- Discourse Bars for right sidebar (About section, leaderboard widget, online members, custom links)
- Topic List Previews for excerpts + thumbnails on the feed
- A styled “Write something…” prompt at the top of the feed that opens the native composer on click
- Pinned topics displayed with a visible “Pinned” label like Skool
- Top navigation links: Community | Classroom (external link to my learning platform) | Calendar | Members | Leaderboards
- Welcome banner with community branding
- Rounded, modern, social-media aesthetic via CSS
- Mobile responsive
Plugins to install & configure (5)
- Gamification: leaderboard, points system, levels displayed on user cards
- Automation: welcome DM sequence for new members, profile photo reminder, engagement triggers
- Calendar: community events visible from the nav
- Solved: for Q&A categories
- Chat: channels configured for the community
Maybe I’m missing some, let me know 
Email notifications
- Weekly digest / recap email configured
- Notification when someone replies to your topic
- Notification when someone replies to a thread you’re participating in
- All email branding customized (logo, colors)
Gamification & Trust Levels
- Trust Levels configured to progressively unlock permissions (posting, DMs, etc.)
- Points system tied to meaningful actions (posting, replying, receiving likes)
- Leaderboard displayed in the right sidebar
Category structure
- I’ll provide the category list, just need them created and organized with proper permissions
What I’m NOT looking for
- A custom theme built from scratch
- Ongoing maintenance retainer (just the initial setup)
- Anything that will break on every Discourse update
Please feel free to contact me to discuss deadlines and prices, I’m flexible
If you have examples of Discourse communities you’ve set up (especially social-feed / Skool-like setups)it would be great !
Happy to share a Skool screenshot for reference.
Thanks everyone