Bye bye Ben-RO
Hey everyone! After about a bajillion posts and even more High Fives, it's time for me to hang up my keyboard and move on from modding at RO.
I have had the most incredible couple of years here. I've learned so much, grown so much, and seen you all do the same! I really feel like our community is now at the point where it's ready for all of you to help keep it going and growing. There's very few spaces like ReachOut where you can have such a big say on what you want in the community.
I encourage you all to take on the responsibility and the challenge of making this place the best space it possibly can be for helping people have amazing and happy lives.
There's a chance i'll pop back on to help out with training up and supporting our mods and perhaps some other things, but for now at least, my last day will be the 20th of December.
Thank you for being so amazing and teaching so many incredible new skills and ways of looking at the world. You are a strong, smart and resilient bunch! I'm going to miss you all very, very much 😞
Ben-RO
Hey @Ben-RO just wanted to say a big thanks for being CM for what has felt like ever :P. The RO community is like a big family so it is sad to see you leave but I really want to wish you good luck for your future adventures and hope that they treat you well. It's been great having you here and I've enjoyed joking around and doing the occasional thread takeover :P, you've been with me through thick and thin and that's something that I can't say to too many other people so I want to say a big thanks for that and again wish you luck for the future :).
And let's have a bit of a look back now 😛
And because you deserve it:
And if you really didn't get the memo, you're a legend mate! 😛 😄
I am going to miss you all lots and lots. I'm definitely channelling Winnie the Pooh right now.
Thank you again to all of you for making this community so great.
We're going to need all the help we can get in the next year as it gets bigger. Look after the new Community Manager and the new Community Coordinators when they get here and be patient with RO as they work hard to help out on the community as much as they can over the next couple of months. We'll do our best, as always!
You are responsible for making this community a great space for others to come. Your actions, words and support define what kind of space this will be. So keep up the good work of looking after yourselves and each other. You got this 🙂
@Ben-RO that Winnie the Pooh quote always hits me right in the feels 😞 
Everyone here has already said so much but I also want to thank you for everything. I remember what it was like when you took over from @Sophie-RO a few years ago and how weird that felt... Now it truly feels like you're the heart and soul of the community and it'll be strange to have to go through that process again.
Thank you for supporting me in my journey to become a mod. Thank you for the crazy mod workshops. Thank you for understanding and sticking by me when I fucked up five billion times. Thank you for always having my back, and encouraging me to reflect and grow as a person. You are an awesome mentor and will go on to do even more super amazing things - I've no doubt about that
Ben,
I know I speak for everyone on the forums, whether they've been here for five minutes or five years, in saying that you have truly had a positive, memorable impact on all of our lives. We've messed around when running GRs and in the games section, and you've helped me through some of the toughest stuff I've ever dealt with. This community means so much to me - has taught me so much, has helped me so much, and has made me laugh so much - and from when I joined the forums last September, you have been the center of that community. It is difficult for me, and I think many others, to accept that this will no longer be the case, but we'll manage. We'll manage because you'll have left us bunch of strange, unique, incredible forumers stronger and more capable than when you arrived.
While it is sad to see you go, I wish you nothing but the best in whatever your future holds.
We'll miss you dude. Thank you for everything.
@Ben-RO really going to miss you.
You've helped me and everyone so much over the years.
You've helped make this community what it is today.
I hope whatever new embark on is amazing and that you continue to be the amazing person you are. Good luck for the future, I wish you well.
noooo @Ben-RO you cant leave well actually you can lol but damn it!
@roseisnotaplanthas basically summed it up perfectly
i do want to say a big thank you though, ive been here not even a year and youve helped me heaps and heaps! it has been a real pleasure knowing you and interacting with you.
i do wish you the best in all your endeavours and good luck with everything. whoever/wherever you go they are lucky to have you. i really hope you do pop in and say hello!
do you mind sharing what your aiming at? as in your career path?
I'm tempted to type out an entire thing in farewell reminiscing about the time you've spent here, things you've done for us and the impact you've had. But I think we can all agree that I have a little bit of a rant problem, and I've been trying to improve on that, so I'm just going to write out my message in exhaustive gif form instead.
Goodbye @Ben-RO. For all your teachings, for believing in us, and for always being there for us when the community needed you. Best of luck in all your future endeavours. And please. Remember us.
Edit: BONUS GIFs:
(Like your gif, although for the record I feel like WE'RE Harry, and you're Hagrid.)
It's been a pleasure @j95. I'm going to miss chatting to you and I've learned a lot from you too. Keep going and don't forget that while recovery looks like this:
You still learn a bit every time, so you never really go back to the start, even when it feels like it.
It does suck @j95 and I'm sad to go. I'm happysad:P. The new place i am going to is going to help me learn a lot more about community stuff. It'll be much more challenging and is what i need to keep growing.
It's going to take a little while to hire new people. So for now we have some people from Quiip coming back to help out. They'll introduce themselves over the next couple of weeks although i reckon you might know some of them!
We will be a bit thin on the ground though, so please be patient with us as we work though this tricky bit.
Thanks for the quick Heya to Quiip @Ben-RO
Hi, I'm Danielle, and I'll be one of those around to help out (also Nick, Larah and Lauren). Very happy to be here, and very happy to see that you're all doing your thing so very well.
