I just purchased a 1 Month Gold Account, about five minutes ago, and nothing has changed- the CSC came out of my account, but the Gold Account section of the forums won't let me in and the Autopricer in my shop still says I need to purchase a Gold Account.

Did I do something wrong? Am I supposed to wait before the perks kick in? Did the Event I deleted off-hand say something important after all?

Using Google Chrome and Windows 7, if that helps.

go to your inventory and find the Gold Account Medal. Click on it, and one of the options should be "Activate GA" - this is when your 1 month of gold account starts. You can check how long you have in your User Dashboard under "Gold Account Info"

I thought the problem would be my own stupidity... Thanks for your help.

it's okay, I don't think they give you written-out instructions on the GA medal purchase page. You can also buy GA medals from other users so users who don't play with cash can get GAs with sP.