I got this to show on mobile & without the user having to login & with no text.
Here is how I did it:
disabled: !this.user.preferences().showSynopsisExcerpts,
Delete that part in the forum.js file. Likely going to screw up settings, but you can remove with CSS:
.item-synopsis{
display: none;
}
You may have the unminify to read properly.
In the less file, delete the display:none for mobile entry.
In custom CSS:
.DiscussionListItem-info .item-excerpt{
font-size:0 !important;
}
Boom. No superfluous text. No having to sign in to see. It will grab the first image if you have excerpt limit to 800 or more. Not the most efficient (because the text is still loaded in DOM and thus will take up resources and look ugly in the console), but will work until update.