Board Level Update Issue

I've been at level 12 for 2-3 days, was at level 11 2-3 days before that, level 10 for 2-3 days prior to that, etc., etc., etc. Yet until about two minutes ago my level on the boards was stuck at 4. At level 4 on the boards you can't create new discussions. You can't reply in discussions. You can't leave comments on official news posts. You can't do jack.

Except for one thing. You can up-vote, which I didn't know about until about two minutes ago. Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?

So I've been stuck no being able to participate even one tiny thing for the past (roughly) two weeks that I've been playing LoL. I started doing searches for "How to level up on the LoL boards" to try to figure this out, which is obviously ridiculous. It should be very easy for a new player to know how and when he/she will be able to participate in the LoL community at large, but I've been unable to find this out through my wanderings through the boards. It might be posted on some LoL wiki somewhere, but searching for answers outside of the official LoL Boards should not be necessary! I understand the need to prevent spambots and the like, but this issue was really quite annoying and I hope to help other new players with this issue in the future.

New players, if you are level 6 or above in-game, you should be level 6 or above here on the boards. If you are not, try this:

1. Log into your account if you are not already logged in
2. Go to http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en (or whatever your local LoL "Main Page" is)
3. Click on any article
4. Scroll down past the content to the comments
5. You will not be able to comment, so don't waste your time trying yet. Instead, find a comment you want to either up-vote or down-vote and do so, but don't just click on any random comment as this is kind of rude.
6. Refresh the boards page and you should now be seeing your level on the boards as the same as your in-game level.

Older player, the same goes for you. But if you can already comment and create new discussions, this should also work to update your level here on the boards.

TL;DR version: Performing some action on any LoL site while logged in should update your level on the boards.