diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 2fab177..e1510e2 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ BOT_DISPLAY_NAME=GogoBee
 # Which rooms the bot posts scheduled content to (comma-separated room IDs)
 BROADCAST_ROOMS=!roomid:example.com
 
+# The daily 08:00 WOTD auto-post is disabled by default.
+# Set to true to enable it. The !wotd command and passive WOTD
+# usage tracking work regardless of this setting.
+ENABLE_WOTD_POST=false
+
 # Admins who can run admin-only commands (comma-separated Matrix user IDs)
 ADMIN_USERS=@yourmxid:example.com
 
diff --git a/internal/db/db.go b/internal/db/db.go
index 0acb3f2..b985f47 100644
--- a/internal/db/db.go
+++ b/internal/db/db.go
@@ -333,6 +333,9 @@ func runMigrations(d *sql.DB) error {
 		// engages when a fork / elite / boss / supply pinch actually
 		// needs a decision. CAS-claim on this column gates re-entry.
 		`ALTER TABLE dnd_expedition ADD COLUMN last_autorun_at DATETIME`,
+		// URL link previews now post the page's og:image/twitter:image
+		// thumbnail; cache it alongside the title/description.
+		`ALTER TABLE url_cache ADD COLUMN image_url TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT ''`,
 	}
 	for _, stmt := range columnMigrations {
 		if _, err := d.Exec(stmt); err != nil {
@@ -1124,6 +1127,7 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS url_cache (
 	url TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
 	title TEXT DEFAULT '',
 	description TEXT DEFAULT '',
+	image_url TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
 	cached_at INTEGER DEFAULT (unixepoch())
 );
 
@@ -2041,15 +2045,15 @@ func SeedSchedulerDefaults(d *sql.DB) error {
 		name string
 		cron string
 	}{
-		{"prefetch", "5 0 * * *"},       // 00:05 daily
-		{"maintenance", "0 3 * * *"},    // 03:00 daily
-		{"wotd", "0 8 * * *"},           // 08:00 daily
-		{"holidays", "0 7 * * *"},       // 07:00 daily
-		{"releases", "0 9 * * 1"},       // 09:00 Monday
-		{"birthday_check", "0 6 * * *"}, // 06:00 daily
-		{"anime_releases", "0 10 * * *"},// 10:00 daily
-		{"movie_releases", "0 11 * * *"},// 11:00 daily
-		{"concert_digest", "0 12 * * 0"},// 12:00 Sunday
+		{"prefetch", "5 0 * * *"},        // 00:05 daily
+		{"maintenance", "0 3 * * *"},     // 03:00 daily
+		{"wotd", "0 8 * * *"},            // 08:00 daily
+		{"holidays", "0 7 * * *"},        // 07:00 daily
+		{"releases", "0 9 * * 1"},        // 09:00 Monday
+		{"birthday_check", "0 6 * * *"},  // 06:00 daily
+		{"anime_releases", "0 10 * * *"}, // 10:00 daily
+		{"movie_releases", "0 11 * * *"}, // 11:00 daily
+		{"concert_digest", "0 12 * * 0"}, // 12:00 Sunday
 	}
 
 	stmt, err := d.Prepare(`INSERT OR IGNORE INTO scheduler_config (job_name, cron_expr) VALUES (?, ?)`)
diff --git a/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail.go b/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e247e46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail.go
@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+package plugin
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"image"
+	_ "image/gif"  // register GIF decoder for DecodeConfig
+	_ "image/jpeg" // register JPEG decoder for DecodeConfig
+	_ "image/png"  // register PNG decoder for DecodeConfig
+	"io"
+	"log/slog"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/url"
+	"strconv"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+
+	"gogobee/internal/safehttp"
+
+	_ "golang.org/x/image/webp" // register WebP decoder for DecodeConfig
+
+	"maunium.net/go/mautrix/event"
+	"maunium.net/go/mautrix/id"
+)
+
+// thumbnailUserAgent identifies the bot when probing and downloading the
+// preview image for a posted link.
+const thumbnailUserAgent = "GogoBee/1.0 (+link thumbnail fetch)"
+
+// thumbnailClient validates and downloads link-supplied image URLs. It routes
+// through safehttp so a posted link can't steer fetches at loopback / RFC1918 /
+// cloud-metadata IPs — the dial-time guard re-checks every redirect target too.
+// The 10 MiB download ceiling below bounds memory regardless.
+var thumbnailClient = safehttp.NewClient(15 * time.Second)
+
+// resolveURL turns a possibly-relative ref into an absolute URL against base.
+func resolveURL(base, ref string) string {
+	ref = strings.TrimSpace(ref)
+	if ref == "" {
+		return ""
+	}
+	b, err := url.Parse(base)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ref
+	}
+	r, err := url.Parse(ref)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ref
+	}
+	return b.ResolveReference(r).String()
+}
+
+// normalizeImageURL rewrites known CDN thumbnail URLs to a higher-resolution
+// variant. Currently handles The Guardian's i.guim.co.uk, whose pages hand out
+// narrow thumbnails. Signed URLs are left alone (re-signing isn't possible),
+// as are unrecognized hosts.
+func normalizeImageURL(raw string) string {
+	if raw == "" {
+		return raw
+	}
+	u, err := url.Parse(raw)
+	if err != nil || u.Host != "i.guim.co.uk" {
+		return raw
+	}
+	q := u.Query()
+	if q.Get("width") == "" || q.Get("s") != "" {
+		return raw
+	}
+	q.Set("width", "1200")
+	u.RawQuery = q.Encode()
+	return u.String()
+}
+
+// validateImageURL HEAD-probes an image URL: it must be http(s), return 200,
+// have an image/* content type, and (if a length is declared) exceed 5 KiB so
+// tracking pixels are filtered. Returns false with no error on any failure.
+func validateImageURL(rawURL string) bool {
+	if rawURL == "" || safehttp.ValidateURL(rawURL) != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	req, err := http.NewRequest("HEAD", rawURL, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return false
+	}
+	req.Header.Set("User-Agent", thumbnailUserAgent)
+
+	resp, err := thumbnailClient.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		slog.Debug("thumbnail: image HEAD failed", "url", rawURL, "err", err)
+		return false
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return false
+	}
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(resp.Header.Get("Content-Type"), "image/") {
+		return false
+	}
+	if cl := resp.Header.Get("Content-Length"); cl != "" {
+		if size, err := strconv.ParseInt(cl, 10, 64); err == nil && size <= 5120 {
+			return false // tracking pixel
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// SendImageFromURL downloads imageURL, uploads it to Matrix, and posts it as an
+// m.image event in roomID. Returns an error on any failure so callers can fall
+// back to a text-only preview. The fetch is SSRF-guarded and size-capped.
+func (b *Base) SendImageFromURL(roomID id.RoomID, imageURL string) error {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 30*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, "GET", imageURL, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("create image request: %w", err)
+	}
+	req.Header.Set("User-Agent", thumbnailUserAgent)
+
+	resp, err := thumbnailClient.Do(req)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("download image: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer resp.Body.Close()
+	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+		return fmt.Errorf("image download status %d", resp.StatusCode)
+	}
+
+	data, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(resp.Body, 10*1024*1024))
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("read image: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	contentType := resp.Header.Get("Content-Type")
+	if i := strings.IndexByte(contentType, ';'); i >= 0 {
+		contentType = strings.TrimSpace(contentType[:i])
+	}
+	if contentType == "" {
+		contentType = "image/jpeg"
+	}
+	if !strings.HasPrefix(contentType, "image/") {
+		return fmt.Errorf("not an image: %s", contentType)
+	}
+
+	// Decode dimensions so clients render the image inline rather than as a
+	// downloadable file attachment.
+	var width, height int
+	if cfg, _, decErr := image.DecodeConfig(bytes.NewReader(data)); decErr == nil {
+		width, height = cfg.Width, cfg.Height
+	}
+
+	ext := ".jpg"
+	switch contentType {
+	case "image/png":
+		ext = ".png"
+	case "image/gif":
+		ext = ".gif"
+	case "image/webp":
+		ext = ".webp"
+	}
+	filename := "thumbnail" + ext
+
+	uri, err := b.UploadContent(data, contentType, filename)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("upload image: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	content := &event.MessageEventContent{
+		MsgType:  event.MsgImage,
+		Body:     filename,
+		FileName: filename,
+		URL:      uri.CUString(),
+		Info: &event.FileInfo{
+			MimeType: contentType,
+			Size:     len(data),
+			Width:    width,
+			Height:   height,
+		},
+	}
+	_, err = b.Client.SendMessageEvent(context.Background(), roomID, event.EventMessage, content)
+	return err
+}
diff --git a/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail_test.go b/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..094e343
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/plugin/link_thumbnail_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+package plugin
+
+import "testing"
+
+func TestResolveURL(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		base, ref, want string
+	}{
+		{"https://e.com/news/story", "https://cdn.e.com/a.jpg", "https://cdn.e.com/a.jpg"},
+		{"https://e.com/news/story", "//cdn.e.com/a.jpg", "https://cdn.e.com/a.jpg"},
+		{"https://e.com/news/story", "/img/a.jpg", "https://e.com/img/a.jpg"},
+		{"https://e.com/news/story", "a.jpg", "https://e.com/news/a.jpg"},
+		{"https://e.com/news/story", "", ""},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		if got := resolveURL(c.base, c.ref); got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("resolveURL(%q, %q) = %q, want %q", c.base, c.ref, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNormalizeImageURL(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		name, in, want string
+	}{
+		{"non-guardian passthrough", "https://e.com/a.jpg?width=140", "https://e.com/a.jpg?width=140"},
+		{"signed left alone", "https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg?width=140&s=abc", "https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg?width=140&s=abc"},
+		{"no width passthrough", "https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg", "https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg"},
+		{"empty", "", ""},
+	}
+	for _, c := range cases {
+		if got := normalizeImageURL(c.in); got != c.want {
+			t.Errorf("%s: normalizeImageURL(%q) = %q, want %q", c.name, c.in, got, c.want)
+		}
+	}
+	// Unsigned Guardian thumbnail gets bumped to width=1200.
+	if got := normalizeImageURL("https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg?width=140"); got != "https://i.guim.co.uk/x.jpg?width=1200" {
+		t.Errorf("normalizeImageURL unsigned = %q, want width=1200", got)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/plugin/urls.go b/internal/plugin/urls.go
index 1366666..89772ad 100644
--- a/internal/plugin/urls.go
+++ b/internal/plugin/urls.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"gogobee/internal/db"
+	"gogobee/internal/safehttp"
 
 	"github.com/PuerkitoBio/goquery"
 	"maunium.net/go/mautrix"
@@ -40,9 +41,10 @@ func NewURLsPlugin(client *mautrix.Client) *URLsPlugin {
 		Base:        NewBase(client),
 		enabled:     enabled,
 		ignoreUsers: ignore,
-		httpClient: &http.Client{
-			Timeout: 3 * time.Second,
-		},
+		// Route page scrapes through safehttp so a posted link can't steer the
+		// fetch at loopback / RFC1918 / cloud-metadata IPs (re-checked on every
+		// redirect), and can't OOM the parser by streaming an unbounded body.
+		httpClient: safehttp.NewClient(8 * time.Second),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -90,12 +92,23 @@ func (p *URLsPlugin) OnMessage(ctx MessageContext) error {
 }
 
 func (p *URLsPlugin) previewURL(ctx MessageContext, targetURL string) {
-	title, desc, err := p.fetchPreview(targetURL)
+	title, desc, image, err := p.fetchPreview(targetURL)
 	if err != nil {
 		slog.Debug("urls: fetch preview failed", "url", targetURL, "err", err)
 		return
 	}
 
+	if title == "" && desc == "" && image == "" {
+		return
+	}
+
+	// Post the thumbnail first (best-effort), so it renders above the text.
+	if image != "" && validateImageURL(image) {
+		if err := p.SendImageFromURL(ctx.RoomID, image); err != nil {
+			slog.Debug("urls: thumbnail post failed", "url", targetURL, "image", image, "err", err)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if title == "" && desc == "" {
 		return
 	}
@@ -120,63 +133,69 @@ func (p *URLsPlugin) previewURL(ctx MessageContext, targetURL string) {
 	}
 }
 
-// fetchPreview retrieves og:title and og:description, checking cache first.
-func (p *URLsPlugin) fetchPreview(rawURL string) (string, string, error) {
+// fetchPreview retrieves og:title, og:description and og:image, checking cache first.
+func (p *URLsPlugin) fetchPreview(rawURL string) (title, desc, image string, err error) {
 	d := db.Get()
 	now := time.Now().UTC().Unix()
 	cacheTTL := int64(24 * 60 * 60)
 
 	// Check cache
-	var title, desc string
 	var cachedAt int64
-	err := d.QueryRow(
-		`SELECT title, description, cached_at FROM url_cache WHERE url = ?`, rawURL,
-	).Scan(&title, &desc, &cachedAt)
+	err = d.QueryRow(
+		`SELECT title, description, image_url, cached_at FROM url_cache WHERE url = ?`, rawURL,
+	).Scan(&title, &desc, &image, &cachedAt)
 	if err == nil && now-cachedAt < cacheTTL {
-		return title, desc, nil
+		return title, desc, image, nil
 	}
 
 	// Fetch from web
-	title, desc, err = p.scrapeOG(rawURL)
+	title, desc, image, err = p.scrapeOG(rawURL)
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", err
+		return "", "", "", err
 	}
 
 	// Cache the result
 	db.Exec("urls: cache write",
-		`INSERT INTO url_cache (url, title, description, cached_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)
-		 ON CONFLICT(url) DO UPDATE SET title = ?, description = ?, cached_at = ?`,
-		rawURL, title, desc, now, title, desc, now,
+		`INSERT INTO url_cache (url, title, description, image_url, cached_at) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
+		 ON CONFLICT(url) DO UPDATE SET title = ?, description = ?, image_url = ?, cached_at = ?`,
+		rawURL, title, desc, image, now, title, desc, image, now,
 	)
 
-	return title, desc, nil
+	return title, desc, image, nil
 }
 
-// scrapeOG fetches a URL and extracts og:title and og:description.
-func (p *URLsPlugin) scrapeOG(rawURL string) (string, string, error) {
+// scrapeOG fetches a URL and extracts og:title, og:description and og:image.
+func (p *URLsPlugin) scrapeOG(rawURL string) (string, string, string, error) {
+	if err := safehttp.ValidateURL(rawURL); err != nil {
+		return "", "", "", err
+	}
+
 	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", rawURL, nil)
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("create request: %w", err)
+		return "", "", "", fmt.Errorf("create request: %w", err)
 	}
 	req.Header.Set("User-Agent", "GogoBee Bot/1.0")
+	req.Header.Set("Accept", "text/html,application/xhtml+xml")
 
 	resp, err := p.httpClient.Do(req)
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("fetch: %w", err)
+		return "", "", "", fmt.Errorf("fetch: %w", err)
 	}
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
 
 	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("status %d", resp.StatusCode)
+		return "", "", "", fmt.Errorf("status %d", resp.StatusCode)
 	}
 
-	doc, err := goquery.NewDocumentFromReader(resp.Body)
+	// Cap the parsed body at 2 MiB — og: tags live in <head>, near the top.
+	doc, err := goquery.NewDocumentFromReader(safehttp.LimitedBody(resp.Body, 2*1024*1024))
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", "", fmt.Errorf("parse HTML: %w", err)
+		return "", "", "", fmt.Errorf("parse HTML: %w", err)
 	}
 
 	title := ""
 	desc := ""
+	image := ""
 
 	doc.Find("meta").Each(func(_ int, s *goquery.Selection) {
 		prop, _ := s.Attr("property")
@@ -186,6 +205,10 @@ func (p *URLsPlugin) scrapeOG(rawURL string) (string, string, error) {
 			title = content
 		case "og:description":
 			desc = content
+		case "og:image:secure_url", "og:image:url", "og:image":
+			if image == "" && strings.TrimSpace(content) != "" {
+				image = content
+			}
 		}
 	})
 
@@ -205,5 +228,9 @@ func (p *URLsPlugin) scrapeOG(rawURL string) (string, string, error) {
 		})
 	}
 
-	return strings.TrimSpace(title), strings.TrimSpace(desc), nil
+	if image != "" {
+		image = normalizeImageURL(resolveURL(rawURL, strings.TrimSpace(image)))
+	}
+
+	return strings.TrimSpace(title), strings.TrimSpace(desc), image, nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/safehttp/safehttp.go b/internal/safehttp/safehttp.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f8ccfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/safehttp/safehttp.go
@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+// Package safehttp provides an http.Client hardened against SSRF and
+// memory-DoS via hostile upstreams. Every outbound fetch the bot makes
+// against feed-supplied URLs (RSS articles, image hosts) should go through
+// one of these clients so a malicious feed can't steer the bot at loopback,
+// link-local, RFC1918, or cloud metadata IPs, and can't OOM the process by
+// streaming an unbounded body.
+package safehttp
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"io"
+	"net"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/url"
+	"strings"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// ErrBlockedHost is returned when a URL resolves to a non-public IP.
+var ErrBlockedHost = errors.New("safehttp: blocked non-public host")
+
+// AllowPrivate, when true, disables the loopback/RFC1918 dial guard. It
+// exists for tests that spin up httptest.NewServer on 127.0.0.1 — never
+// set this in production.
+var AllowPrivate bool
+
+// safeDialContext refuses connections to non-public IPs. It runs after
+// DNS resolution, so a hostile DNS rebinding that returns 127.0.0.1
+// still gets blocked at dial time.
+func safeDialContext(ctx context.Context, network, addr string) (net.Conn, error) {
+	host, port, err := net.SplitHostPort(addr)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	ips, err := (&net.Resolver{}).LookupIP(ctx, "ip", host)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	var allowed net.IP
+	for _, ip := range ips {
+		if AllowPrivate || isPublicIP(ip) {
+			allowed = ip
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	if allowed == nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("%w: %s", ErrBlockedHost, host)
+	}
+	d := &net.Dialer{Timeout: 5 * time.Second, KeepAlive: 30 * time.Second}
+	return d.DialContext(ctx, network, net.JoinHostPort(allowed.String(), port))
+}
+
+// isPublicIP reports whether ip is a globally routable unicast address.
+// Rejects loopback, link-local, multicast, RFC1918, CGNAT, and the
+// AWS/GCP/Azure metadata IPs 169.254.169.254 / fd00:ec2::254 (these
+// already fall under link-local but spell it out for clarity).
+func isPublicIP(ip net.IP) bool {
+	if ip == nil || ip.IsUnspecified() || ip.IsLoopback() ||
+		ip.IsLinkLocalUnicast() || ip.IsLinkLocalMulticast() ||
+		ip.IsMulticast() || ip.IsPrivate() {
+		return false
+	}
+	// 100.64.0.0/10 (CGNAT) is not covered by IsPrivate on older Go.
+	if v4 := ip.To4(); v4 != nil {
+		if v4[0] == 100 && v4[1] >= 64 && v4[1] <= 127 {
+			return false
+		}
+		// 0.0.0.0/8 and friends.
+		if v4[0] == 0 {
+			return false
+		}
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// ValidateURL returns nil if the URL is http(s) and parseable. It does
+// not resolve DNS — the dial step does that — but it does reject bare
+// schemes (file://, gopher://, etc.) before we even open a connection.
+func ValidateURL(raw string) error {
+	u, err := url.Parse(strings.TrimSpace(raw))
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if u.Scheme != "http" && u.Scheme != "https" {
+		return fmt.Errorf("safehttp: unsupported scheme %q", u.Scheme)
+	}
+	if u.Host == "" {
+		return errors.New("safehttp: empty host")
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
+// NewClient returns an http.Client whose transport blocks non-public
+// destinations at dial time, caps redirects at 5, and re-validates each
+// redirect target's scheme. timeout is the per-request overall budget.
+func NewClient(timeout time.Duration) *http.Client {
+	tr := &http.Transport{
+		DialContext:           safeDialContext,
+		ForceAttemptHTTP2:     true,
+		MaxIdleConns:          32,
+		IdleConnTimeout:       90 * time.Second,
+		TLSHandshakeTimeout:   5 * time.Second,
+		ExpectContinueTimeout: 1 * time.Second,
+		ResponseHeaderTimeout: 10 * time.Second,
+	}
+	return &http.Client{
+		Transport: tr,
+		Timeout:   timeout,
+		CheckRedirect: func(req *http.Request, via []*http.Request) error {
+			if len(via) >= 5 {
+				return errors.New("safehttp: stopped after 5 redirects")
+			}
+			if req.URL.Scheme != "http" && req.URL.Scheme != "https" {
+				return fmt.Errorf("safehttp: unsupported redirect scheme %q", req.URL.Scheme)
+			}
+			return nil
+		},
+	}
+}
+
+// LimitedBody wraps r in a reader that errors once more than max bytes have
+// been read. Use to cap how much of a response body downstream parsers
+// (goquery, image.Decode) will ever see — a hostile origin streaming an
+// endless body otherwise OOMs the process.
+func LimitedBody(r io.Reader, max int64) io.Reader {
+	return &limitedReader{R: r, N: max}
+}
+
+type limitedReader struct {
+	R io.Reader
+	N int64
+}
+
+func (l *limitedReader) Read(p []byte) (int, error) {
+	if l.N <= 0 {
+		return 0, fmt.Errorf("safehttp: response body exceeded cap")
+	}
+	if int64(len(p)) > l.N {
+		p = p[:l.N]
+	}
+	n, err := l.R.Read(p)
+	l.N -= int64(n)
+	return n, err
+}
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index da8a03a..5d78995 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -406,8 +406,8 @@ func setupScheduledJobs(
 		}
 	})
 
-	// WOTD post at 08:00
-	if strings.ToLower(os.Getenv("DISABLE_WOTD_POST")) != "true" {
+	// WOTD post at 08:00 (disabled by default; opt in via ENABLE_WOTD_POST=true)
+	if strings.ToLower(os.Getenv("ENABLE_WOTD_POST")) == "true" {
 		c.AddFunc("0 8 * * *", func() {
 			slog.Info("scheduler: posting WOTD")
 			for _, r := range rooms {
@@ -415,7 +415,7 @@ func setupScheduledJobs(
 			}
 		})
 	} else {
-		slog.Info("scheduler: WOTD daily post disabled via DISABLE_WOTD_POST")
+		slog.Info("scheduler: WOTD daily post disabled (set ENABLE_WOTD_POST=true to enable)")
 	}
 
 	// Game releases Monday 09:00