i just logged in and came across this event on my sidebar

Your gold account has been activated as a gift! Enjoy!

what is this from? i'm extremely confused lol

maybe its a buddy GA? But those usually say (user) sent you a buddy GA right? Hmmm puzzle indeed

that phrasing makes me think it sounds like the free GA time the userbase sometimes gets gifted as apology/thanks after the site has some major hiccups. but the last time that happened was... not super recent but also not super long ago either? so unless you just came back from a break from the site, the timing wouldn't line up.