Hey guys
Disclaimer: No AI was hurt in building this theme component
Yes guys, I am guilty of shamelessly vibe-coding a rip off of the Topic Cards theme component. Hence a huge shoutout to the original authors and contributors for the great work!
While at first this was a fork, over 80% of the code and structure was completely rewritten. We added a ton of new features and on first glance all the various settings can be quite overwhelming.
Advanced Topic Cards - Preliminary Release
With our rewrite you get:
- more granular control where topic cards are displayed
- Two different topic card layouts
- Featured Cards Carousel at top of Latest page
For a full list detailed scroll down below 
Feel free to test it, run it, copy it and roast it here in the thread! I am really excited about getting feedback on the result:
Known Issues:
- Redundant TC settings: Some of the features regarding thumbnail and card height are redundant/not of value anymore
- Desktop view lacks horizontal scrolling via touchpad/mousewheel (Embla provides a plugin for that, we havenāt had
- Action Buttons are not as āpolishedā, need better visual rework
Summary of the improvements and features:
Perācategory, perādevice layouts
Configure cards separately for desktop and mobile as list (image left, content right) or grid (image above, content below). You can choose exactly which categories use which layout on each platform.
- Example Grid Layout: Samen-Verzeichnis - Forum | Cannabisanbauen.net
- Example Card Layout: Growreports - Forum | Cannabisanbauen.net
Subcategory layout inheritance
Optionally inherit card layouts from a parent category so you donāt have to configure every subcategory by hand.Home page featured topics carousel (Embla)
A featured topics carousel you can place on discovery routes (home/latest/top/categories), powered by Embla Carousel, with settings for slides per view, looping, alignment, drag behavior, and more.
- Example: forum.cannabisanbauen.net (home page)
Subcategory carousel on category pages
Turn the subcategory list on a category page into a horizontal carousel, with controls for which parent categories and how many children are required before it shows.Visual customization options
Thumbnail placeholders (Font Awesome icon) when a topic has no image
Card border radius presets
Card title font size choices (using Discourseās font tokens)
Optional fixed card/grid heights and thumbnail size controls
Richer card components
New card structure with:
Byline (OP avatar + username + optional publish date)
Action buttons (Details + Featured Link CTA)
Inline tags (category badge + tags inside the card body)
Compatible with other Theme Components/Plugins:
- Calendar + Event Plugin: Display Event Date after Title
- User Portfolio Theme Component: Display
Features planned:
- More fine grained control for Featured Carousel: Additional plugin outlets, page routes, etc
- Expand/Collapse Featured Topic Card Carousel (+ auto-expand based on new/unread topics)