RE: The Leo finance proposal: to vote or not to vote?

As I keep up somewhat with all the comings and goings on Hive, it was interesting to see this post about this topic. Seems DHF as a source of "other people's money" has always been controversial, especially of late ...

The basis for my answer is my own personal history with the Leo community. I'll do my best to be objective, with pros and cons:

Pros:

• I joined in with the Leo community in the summer of 2020, after Khal personally responded to a post I wrote about my first experience (let's just leave it uhhh ... "less than ideal") with their UI. Both the timeliness and content of it impressed me enough to take a closer look.


• Words are nice. Actions are all-important. There was enough follow-up over the next couple of months that I became an investor. Certainly still problems, but also definite improvements made, i.e. progress in the right direction.


• In September of 2020, Khal and the Leo community decided to get involved in creating a liquidity pool on the Ethereum blockchain. Leading to my first ever "toe dip" into the whole world of DexFi ...


• Sooner after, this was hacked and a considerable amount of money was taken, including mine. Long story short, Khal owned up to errors made and worked very hard to make everyone whole the best he could.

The "good vibes" from the above kept me invested through the next phase of Khal and the Leo community's creation of Cub Finance, then their expansion of that onto the Polygon blockchain. All of which required the use of the Leo bridge.

During this part of my experience, I became (briefly) a Lion in the Leo commmunity.

Cons:

• While my experience with Cub Finance was far less than ideal, I was still able (perhaps foolishly in hindsight) to chalk it up to a learning experience and that Khal and team were doing their best.


• The "wheels began to come off" with the launch of PolyCub and all associated with it on the Polygon blockchain. A very particular memory I had of that time, was Khal's confident statement on one of his AMAs about having filled spreadsheets with "what if" scenarios and it just couldn't miss. Right ... [Never in my hearing was there ever a hint of a retraction]


• During the much shorter time frame of the "meltdown" of Poly Cub vs. what I had already been through with Cub, I became something of an amateur analyzer of raw data, as blockchains make that possible for anyone willing to dive into it.
  
  The discovery of a key member of the Leo community saying one thing and finding transactional evidence they were actually driving people one way to their advantage and personally benefitting from it by doing the opposite ...


• This discovery led me to get out of all off-chain activity with Leo altogether. Subsequent repeated problems with successfully completing transactions on their Leo bridge was it.


• During this whole period, my impression of what had been so favorable about how Khal had handled my initial interaction with him regarding his community and his projects evaporated. I could say a lot more here, but I will take it with me ...

TLDNR? After favorable initial impressions, I rose up through the ranks over the next ~two years to become a Leo Lion. Then, I sold it all, having sustained a very substantial loss and haven't been involved with the Leo community since.

Anyone familiar with any of this realizes it is somewhat "old news." Has there been a turnaround on the general trend (IMO) in the wrong direction since then? Obviously I do not know and would be biased to offer an opinion. I can only say I have not and would not be voting in favor of funding their work from DHF.

P.S. Full disclosure. As explained here and here, I have also all but completely divested from the Hive blockchain itself. I am still here, having delinked my writing in support of others from "getting paid" for it ... Clears the mind ...