Thank you for writing this. You have pretty much read my thoughts!

This is what I've have been doing.

I've also made it a point to vote for posts that are beyond payout time from authors who have put serious effort into it. I understand it may not yield me much or any $$$ but there are many great posts that have not been discovered by whales and dolphins. It benefits the authors and doesn't cost me a dime!

So as a Sea Monkey (in between lil' fish and big fish) I've made it a point to encourage authors who feel let down because they haven't gotten any votes. There are hundreds of them out there. Few I've had the pleasure to know through our interactions.

1. If I like a post (don't have to love it) I simply leave a comment because as a content creator myself, it gives a confidence boost to see someone replying on your post.
2. If you are on slack you will find me upvoting requests from other krills. I'm here to curate good content and and often it's not possible to discover on your own. This community could do with some help and if someone requests you to upvote on a post with good content go for it. You don't lose anything!
3. If I ever get to the point where I have substantial $ in my wallet my principles will largely remain the same. More krills need to be big fishes and so on..
4. You need to look for great posts that go beyond the core interest of the community to find gems. Core interest is everything related to crypto but not everyone here is an expert on crypto.
5. People need to vote beyond trending pages on Steemit! That's where some of the gems of the community lay hidden!

Go discover some today!