diff --git a/src/app/forum/page.tsx b/src/app/forum/page.tsx
index ebb4fde..8a22884 100644
--- a/src/app/forum/page.tsx
+++ b/src/app/forum/page.tsx
@@ -51,6 +51,26 @@ function timeAgo(dateStr: string): string {
   return new Date(dateStr).toLocaleDateString();
 }
 
+// Forum-card freshness: category cards must never display "stale" timestamps
+// (per Ryan — "never allow the forum to say a post was more than a few hours
+// ago"). If the real last_activity is < 5h, show it accurately. If older,
+// pick a value in the 1h-5h range deterministically from the category id so
+// it stays stable across renders within the day instead of jittering.
+function timeAgoFresh(dateStr: string, seedKey: string): string {
+  const diff = Date.now() - new Date(dateStr).getTime();
+  const mins = Math.floor(diff / 60000);
+  if (mins < 60) return mins <= 0 ? 'just now' : `${mins}m ago`;
+  const hrs = Math.floor(mins / 60);
+  if (hrs <= 4) return `${hrs}h ago`;
+  // Stable seed by category id + the day of year so it changes once a day.
+  const day = Math.floor(Date.now() / 86_400_000);
+  let h = 0;
+  for (let i = 0; i < seedKey.length; i++) h = ((h << 5) - h + seedKey.charCodeAt(i)) | 0;
+  h = (h ^ day) & 0x7fffffff;
+  const display = 1 + (h % 5); // 1h..5h
+  return `${display}h ago`;
+}
+
 function TopThreadsWidget({ categoryId }: { categoryId?: string }) {
   const [activeMetric, setActiveMetric] = useState<TopMetric>('upvotes');
   const [threads, setThreads] = useState<ForumThread[]>([]);
@@ -577,7 +597,7 @@ export default function ForumIndexPage() {
                                   <span className="text-[#555]">Last post:</span>{' '}
                                   <span className="text-[#aaa]">{cat.last_thread_title}</span>
                                   {cat.last_activity_at && (
-                                    <span className="text-[#555]"> · {timeAgo(cat.last_activity_at)}</span>
+                                    <span className="text-[#555]"> · {timeAgoFresh(cat.last_activity_at, cat.id)}</span>
                                   )}
                                 </p>
                               )}
diff --git a/src/lib/email-pixel-token.ts b/src/lib/email-pixel-token.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb356f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/email-pixel-token.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+import { createHmac, timingSafeEqual } from "node:crypto";
+
+const SECRET_ENV = "BB_PIX_SECRET";
+
+function getSecret(): string {
+  const s = process.env[SECRET_ENV];
+  if (!s || s.length < 16) {
+    throw new Error(`${SECRET_ENV} env var missing or too short (need 16+ chars)`);
+  }
+  return s;
+}
+
+function b64urlEncode(buf: Buffer): string {
+  return buf.toString("base64").replace(/\+/g, "-").replace(/\//g, "_").replace(/=+$/, "");
+}
+
+function b64urlDecode(s: string): Buffer {
+  const pad = s.length % 4 ? "=".repeat(4 - (s.length % 4)) : "";
+  return Buffer.from(s.replace(/-/g, "+").replace(/_/g, "/") + pad, "base64");
+}
+
+/**
+ * Sign a tracked-email id into a compact URL-safe token. The recipient never
+ * sees the raw uuid — they see /pix/<token>.png and we recover the id by
+ * verifying the HMAC. Tokens are stateless; revocation = delete the
+ * tracked_emails row (the FK on opens cascades).
+ */
+export function signEmailToken(trackedEmailId: string): string {
+  const id = b64urlEncode(Buffer.from(trackedEmailId.replace(/-/g, ""), "hex"));
+  const sig = createHmac("sha256", getSecret()).update(id).digest();
+  const shortSig = b64urlEncode(sig.subarray(0, 12));
+  return `${id}.${shortSig}`;
+}
+
+export function verifyEmailToken(token: string): string | null {
+  const dot = token.indexOf(".");
+  if (dot < 1) return null;
+  const id = token.slice(0, dot);
+  const provided = token.slice(dot + 1);
+  const expected = b64urlEncode(
+    createHmac("sha256", getSecret()).update(id).digest().subarray(0, 12),
+  );
+  const a = Buffer.from(provided);
+  const b = Buffer.from(expected);
+  if (a.length !== b.length) return null;
+  if (!timingSafeEqual(a, b)) return null;
+  const hex = b64urlDecode(id).toString("hex");
+  if (hex.length !== 32) return null;
+  return `${hex.slice(0, 8)}-${hex.slice(8, 12)}-${hex.slice(12, 16)}-${hex.slice(16, 20)}-${hex.slice(20)}`;
+}
+
+export function pixelUrl(trackedEmailId: string, baseUrl = "https://broadcastbeat.com"): string {
+  return `${baseUrl.replace(/\/+$/, "")}/pix/${signEmailToken(trackedEmailId)}.png`;
+}