Would you believe if I say I had once seen curation as an activity done by only the whales or those with trail to give good votes to quality contents? I thought there was a difference between "Curation" and "Votes". That is, curation for the big account and votes for the small accounts π
But I was totally wrong and I got to understand that the two words me at the same thing with just one having a more formal name than the other. But permit me to give a tiny difference between the two.
What Is curation?
Curation is a process of browsing through the feed or community, find good contents, read, hit the vote button and leave a comment appreciating the content writer.
You could say, it takes a lot to say you've curated a content but then, voting is just going through any post and give your vote (Being more focused on your returns from the vote).
So I'm saying, you should be more of a curator than a post voter... It's more ideal that way.
How you personally usually curate?
Okay, I'm just going to use my own words against me here. I do curate but sometimes, I vote more than I curate. For the time I curate a post, I am always in a relaxed state... Find the good contents on my feed, read, vote and comment on them.
But for the time I just vote a post, I hurriedly go through a post... Look at the length, the title, the originality of the images used and proceed to vote or not.
No, I won't say it's right to vote posts that way and I'm working towards making better judgement with my votes from now.
How the curation should be done by the community?
I don't own a community but I've engaged in so many communities since I joined Hive and I'll commend a lot of these communities for their good judgement on posts that goes into the community.
There are so many other communities I would like to mention that are doing the curation work very well and would like to use them as example to others but allow me to mention #theinkwell community and the #cch community.
And I recently found out about the #cch curation initiative through the Post of 
To encourage Engagement we will also be curating the comments. For those actively communicating and adding meaningful input, we will be rewarding some vote value.
Mind you, not only quality posts deserve curation (votes), lots of good comments deserve your votes too. And this will in many ways encourage engagement like the #cch community have said.
What you would do if you were a whale?
I haven't grown much in the amount of votes I give but I know I make use of it very well to ensure that those I follow are aware of my following. Even though the vote isn't much, I give out my votes and it still counts.
Becoming a whale on Hive will mean I'll be able to vote more good contents unlike when I have to worry about my voting power, I could just reduce the percent and reach out to as many posts as I can before my voting power runs down.
What's the importance of the curation?
The obvious importance of curation is to encourage content writers to continue to write... And also for investors to earn their rewards through voting.
Curation is a two way thing, the giver and receiver gains from it but this shouldn't warrant a curator to just vote any posts or a writer to just write anything and expect a curation on his or her post.
One could take curation job as the main work to do on Hive, as it helps both the curator and writer to grow their accounts.
Who are the best content creators you like?
If I'm to give a list, this post won't be enough and I would be breaching the law of "Mentioning too many names in a post" so I'm just going to use this medium to appreciate those content creators who are also generous with their curation votes. 
This is my entry for the DCC contest and you are invited to participate too
Thanks for reading!!!