Thanks for writing this @kevinwong, I have been here less than 5 months, and I feel the frustration of trying to earn curation rewards with a small account. The BEST way to earn with an account my size is to delegate to a voting bot, but I am trying to resist, though I have tried it in the past. I have a solution that I think would really encourage good curation, rather than having lots of people glom onto any post that goes nuclear, regardless of the content. Here is a quote.

So here is my proposal. Plankton don't mind voting 100%, but whales do this rarely. Currently 75% of rewards go to the author, and 25% go to the curators. Suppose 2% of the curation reward was carved out and given to the first upvote (who is not the author) when the post is 5 minutes old, at 80% or more Steem power. The author would still get 75%, and the current curation system would apply to 23%, but the 2% would be a sort of "finders reward". Smaller accounts could do this often, but whales not as much because there is more money at stake. I think this would change Steemit for the better overnight.

Here is a link to the full post. https://steemit.com/steemideas/@giddyupngo/if-i-could-change-one-thing-about-steem-better-curation-rewards-for-plankton