# Horizon: High Context Topic Cards
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470
**Category:** Announcements
**Tags:** horizon-theme
**Created:** [January 16, 2026, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470 "2026-01-16T13:24:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2026, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/1 "2026-01-16T13:24:11Z")
## What’s new in Horizon?
We’re happy to announce the next iteration for the Horizon theme: **high-context topic cards**.
These cards surface key signals at a glance, pulling in data from familiar favourites:
- [Solved](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-solved/30155) (1)
- [Topic Voting](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-topic-voting/40121) (2)
- [Assign](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-assign/58044) (3)
- Good old tags (4)
- Excerpts
We have also rearranged the layout, refined spacing and typography, and expanded the last-reply preview; aiming for a balanced experience.
### Desktop
### Mobile
One thing you might notice on mobile: the category and tag section can overflow and become horizontally scrollable.
`#itsafeaturenotabug`
## How do I enable this?
The forum admin can find a new setting on the theme page. By default this is unchecked to keep using the simple version, but those who want to give it a whirl can switch.
Despite our in-house testing and our assumption that all should behave well, we are labelling it as experimental for the time being. It _should_ work as expected, but we might iterate further on the design and work out some kinks.
## What’s next?
We are planning to make the choice between the two modes available per user, rather than as a single global forum setting. That’s on the roadmap, just not quite ready yet.
~~We’re also looking into making the excerpts appear automatically.~~
This has been done ⬆
For now, we invite you to try it out for a while, on your own forum or here on Meta.
---
### Author:  [@AquaL1te](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AquaL1te)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2026, 11:01am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/7 "2026-01-18T11:01:48Z")
> [@chapoi](#):
>
> We are planning to make the choice between the two modes available per user, rather than as a single global forum setting. That’s on the roadmap, just not quite ready yet.
Can I as an admin enforce the option as well? Because tags are part of the forum experience and without it some users would miss out on extra context about topics. I really like the Horizon theme now with enriched topic details 🎉
The part about “Excerpts”, which can be enabled with: `Enable with bin/rails r ‘SiteSetting.always_include_topic_excerpts = true’` that doesn’t seem to work for me.
```shell
/var/www/discourse# bin/rails r ‘SiteSetting.always_include_topic_excerpts = true’
fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at '/var/www/discourse'
To add an exception for this directory, call:
git config --global --add safe.directory /var/www/discourse
/var/www/discourse/config/initializers/000-pg_connection_patch.rb:21:in `rescue in new_client': We could not find your database: discourse. Available database configurations can be found in config/database.yml. (ActiveRecord::NoDatabaseError)
To resolve this error:
- Did you not create the database, or did you delete it? To create the database, run:
bin/rails db:create
- Has the database name changed? Verify that config/database.yml contains the correct database name.
```
I don’t want to mess too much with this. I guess I’ll just leave it as is. But still leaving the error here in case my setup is broken or something in Discourse can be fixed.
---
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2026, 9:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/8 "2026-01-19T09:49:49Z")
> [@AquaL1te](#):
>
> Can I as an admin enforce the option as well?
Yes, that is the case right now. If you choose the high context options in the theme settings, all users will see this on Horizon. Or do you mean for later? Hmm, having an admin override a user setting wasn’t on the planning and it’s a bit unusual. I suppose we would leave it up to the user if they decide tags are important to them or not. But I think an admin will be able to set the default option probably.
@zogstrip Can you help with the command issue please?
---
### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2026, 9:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/9 "2026-01-19T09:51:43Z")
> [@AquaL1te](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at '/var/www/discourse'
>
> ```
That is weird. How are you entering the container?
---
### Author:  [@AquaL1te](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AquaL1te)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2026, 11:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/10 "2026-01-19T11:28:45Z")
> [@chapoi](#):
>
> I suppose we would leave it up to the user if they decide tags are important to them or not
Tags are really an important part of the way my forum works. If users disable it they might not understand the downgrade and don’t understand why others see a different layout. I would prefer that themes are set by admins. Or at least give admins the freedom to grant users this freedom, just like with theme selection. A consistent UI is I think important.
---
### Author:  [@AquaL1te](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AquaL1te)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/11 "2026-01-19T11:30:14Z")
I enter the container with `$ ./launcher enter app`
```shell
root@tzmc1-app:/var/www/discourse# ls -alid /var/www/discourse
1593655 drwxr-xr-x 1 discourse discourse 4096 Jan 15 10:48 /var/www/discourse
```
---
### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2026, 11:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/12 "2026-01-19T11:43:58Z")
> [@AquaL1te](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> root@tzmc1-app:/var/www/discourse# ls -alid /var/www/discourse
>
> ```
That’s your issue. You should “switch” to the `discourse` user before running the command.
```bash
./launcher enter app
su discourse
bin/rails r 'SiteSetting.always_include_topic_excerpts = true'
```
---
### Author:  [@martin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/martin)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/13 "2026-01-21T00:26:49Z")
> [@chapoi](#):
>
> But I think an admin will be able to set the default option probably.
Yes this is how all our user preferences that are set by admins work. Admins can set a default and individual users can override.
If individual sites really really want to stop users setting individual preferences for whatever reason, adding custom CSS to hide the field for them should be enough.
---
### Author:  [@tpetrov](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tpetrov)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 8:22am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/14 "2026-01-26T08:22:12Z")
> [@chapoi](#):
>
> Excerpts (when available )
How can excerpts be enabled on a Discourse hosted forum?
---
### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 10:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/15 "2026-01-26T10:31:50Z")
`always_include_topic_excerpts` is a hidden site setting. It’s not in the list of available hidden site settings [here](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hidden-settings-on-discourse-hosted-sites/310574)
So I’d contact support as the doc says:
> [@Hidden Settings on Discourse Hosted Sites](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hidden-settings-on-discourse-hosted-sites/310574/1):
>
> **Q: I need to adjust a setting that isn’t listed here. What should I do?**
> A: If you need to change a setting that isn’t listed above, please reach out to the Discourse support team.
---
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2026, 8:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/16 "2026-01-27T08:51:15Z")
> [@tpetrov](#):
>
> How can excerpts be enabled on a Discourse hosted forum?
The idea was indeed to contact Support so they can enable it for you, but we’ve simplified that process and un-hid the setting.
You can find it (after updating) in all site settings:
---
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2026, 11:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/17 "2026-01-27T11:48:01Z")
Even newer update:
After some internal back-and-forth, we added the whole thing as a theme-setting instead:
The choice between simple and high-context cards is now a checkbox and will automatically enable the excerpts too.
---
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2026, 6:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/18 "2026-01-27T18:38:43Z")
I’m not sure that I want the excerpts as they add significant noise. I’d prefer it to still be just excerpts for pinned posts.
Is it now possible to have the other goodies without the forced on excerpts?
---
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2026, 8:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/19 "2026-01-28T08:46:18Z")
> [@nathank](#):
>
> Is it now possible to have the other goodies without the forced on excerpts?
Unfortunately, at this moment, it’s all or nothing.
We are still iterating and taking feedback though; so we’ll see what requests/suggestions pop up a lot.
That being said, as always, good ole CSS is a quick ns easy way to customise it for your own forum experience.
---
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/20 "2026-02-01T20:15:07Z")
I’ve finally been able to take this for a nice run! Firstly - it looks fantastic! Just lovely, and highly functional.
I do find myself pining for Mid-context topic cards though! ‘Goldilocks’ if you will. The high context cards are a bit tricky to get a quick overview of. I guess that is their point though.
Or perhaps what is needed is a way of easily flicking between high / low context for the users.
---
### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2026, 9:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/21 "2026-02-16T21:21:32Z")
Overall, this has been working well for me as my daily driver.
One thing I’m finding a bit unexpected is that when I click on the excerpt it takes me to the first post instead of the last read post.
I could see a case being made that this is a “feature” but I find myself expecting a click anywhere in the whole card to behave the same way.
---
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2026, 3:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/22 "2026-02-17T03:19:49Z")
Tricky though - the excerpt is from the OP, so it makes intuitive sense that it takes you there.
Personally, I’d like to see an excerpt of the last post. But that would be quite complex to implement, eh?
---
### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/23 "2026-02-17T03:34:54Z")
If it were the last post, then what would you expect to happen if you click it?
Skip all the way to the last post?
I think that’d be even more problematic, given we don’t make it easy to [go back to the last unread post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/link-to-first-unread-post/106476/6).
---
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2026, 4:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/24 "2026-02-18T04:05:07Z")
Hmmm, yeah - that is tricky.
It is also one of the reasons I’d like the option to turn the excerpts off!!
---
### Author:  [@stephtara](https://meta.discourse.org/u/stephtara)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470/25 "2026-02-18T15:46:50Z")
> [@mcwumbly](#):
>
> One thing I’m finding a bit unexpected is that when I click on the excerpt it takes me to the first post instead of the last read post.
I would definitely expect to be taken to the last read post. And for the except to be an excerpt of the initial post (stable)… I think? Might have to think about that.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/horizon-high-context-topic-cards/393470.md?page=2)