Show categories without selector

[Rhod]

Hello, I would like to be able to show the categories without the selector and below them show the recent topics precisely like this site: https://forums.wyzecam.com.
The following image shows how in the mentioned forum the categories appear without the selector.

The selector appears just after the categories and shows recent topics.

My doubt is rather if there is already a theme component or plugin that can do this or is it something customized from the same site, I checked that on said site they apparently use “Showcased Categories”.

(Sorry I didn’t know what category to put this question in.
I also did not find anything related in the search, so I dare to ask.)

[hiddenseal]

@Rhod

I checked that on said site they apparently use “Showcased Categories”.

That’s for the two columns at the very top:

Showcased Categories

Summary Showcased Categories allows you to add two “Showcased” topic lists (built from your choice of two different categories) to the top of your forum’s home page. Preview Preview on theme-creator.discourse.org Repository Link https://github.com/discourse/discourse-showcased-categories New to Discourse Themes? Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes Install this theme component [Screen Shot 2020-12-16 at 1.23.…

Another thing, they have desktop category page style set to Boxes with some CSS styling. You may find this useful:

Display boxes for subcategories above topic list

There are two ways to display a list of sub-categories within the parent category: in boxes with only the name, logo, and description in boxes with name, logo, and a list of some featured topics You can enable these styles by visiting the parent category, editing its settings, going to the settings tab, and choosing these options: [37%20PM] Boxes The “Boxes” style is currently being used in our howto category. By using very short category description and adding logos to each subcategory, i…

[Rhod]

That’s for the two columns at the very top:

Yes, I chose to remove it since I don’t think it’s necessary in my forum.

Another thing, they have desktop category page style set to Boxes with some CSS styling. You may find this useful:

Yes, I did so, set it to “boxes”.
What you propose seems fine to me but I don’t really like editing code since I really think there may be a good “theme-component” for it, in fact I installed a theme-component but it doesn’t fit inside the main content, making it really look out of place (ugly).
Can someone tell me where I can make the component appear inside the dark color container?

[hiddenseal]

@Rhod

in fact I installed a theme-component but it doesn’t fit

it’d be helpful to know what component did you install

[Rhod]

it’d be helpful to know what component did you install

Sorry I forgot to mention the components is “Featured Categories Header”, but I realized that it also requires many modifications, for example I cannot put a title, if I add more categories they end up filling the entire width of the forum, they do not fit like in the wyze forum, so if you could advise me some other component or plugin would be very grateful.

[hiddenseal]

@Rhod

Can someone tell me where I can make the component appear inside the dark color container?

It seems to me that featured categories are in separate div container than the dark color one. You could try using CSS to add background to the categories header, if you wish. The relevant classes are highlighted by the author of theme component.

@nolo

html.categories-header{
  .below-site-header-outlet.categories-header {
    .wrap {
      .categories-header-item {
        [each item's link, logo, name..]
      }
    }
  }
}

@Rhod

if you could advise me some other component or plugin would be very grateful

I haven’t seen a theme component that’d fit your description, but it shouldn’t be surprising: people have very different design choices. I think your best option would be either modifying HTML/CSS yourself or going to Marketplace and asking someone else to do it for you.