This was previously posted by my friend Hive account@cryptoeater but didn't receive much attention so he let me post his idea again rephrasing it a bit. If this gets enough attention maybe something can be done about it!
Feel free to chuck himself or I a follow (I'm not that active but Hive account@cryptoeater is and very passionate about growing the Steemit community)
Original post here

The Problem

Many users who are trying to further themselves on Steemit vote for posters who are already popular as they know they'll get more curation rewards for it, leaving minnows who post similar if not better quality content to be left with little love.
This is unhealthy for Steemit and stifles innovation and growth in our community as I see the same type of content on the trending every day.

The Solution

Basically in short, increase curation rewards for those who upvote minnows
A basic outline of the practicalities
If someone's reputation is under a certain number, you get bonus curation rewards for upvoting them if their post gets popular
Let me explain:

Let's say the threshold is 50 rep (arbitrary number)

Firstly, I'll establish a tiered rewards system outlined below

• Tier 1 rewards: (normal rewards) * (1+(rep threshold-rep)/25)
• Tier 2 rewards: (1.500 times Tier 1 rewards)
• Tier 3 rewards: (1.250 times Tier 1 rewards)
• Tier 4 rewards: (1.125 times Tier 1 rewards)

Let's say someone who just started (25 rep) posts something really cool in the introduceyourself tag and gets 60 upvotes
The first 10 voters of the post likely contributed the most to its visibility and thus should be rewarded accordingly so the first 10 voters get the most curation rewards if the post exceeds 10 votes (indicating it's actually worth those votes).
However, 10 votes isn't enough to make a post popular so the next 15 voters after the first 10 should also be awarded but not as much as the first 10 if the post exceeds 25 votes
Lastly, the next 25 voters should also be rewarded but again a little less than the people before if the post receives more than 50 votes
All votes after that receive a small bonus
The rewards for each group of voters are listed below

• Tier 1 rewards (first 10): (normal rewards) * (1+(rep threshold-rep)/25)
  So for this example 1*(1+(50-25)/25) = (2 times normal rewards)
• Tier 2 rewards (first 25): (1.50 normal rewards)
• Tier 3 rewards (first 50): (1.25 normal rewards)
• Tier 4 rewards (after 50): (1.10 normal rewards)

Now, let's say someone with rep 30 posts something and gets 35 upvotes, thus not receiving enough for the full 4 tier rewards system. The curation rewards for this case is outlined below

• Tier 1 rewards (no one): (normal rewards) * (1+(rep threshold-rep)/25)
  So for this example 1*(1+(50-30)/25) = (1.8 times normal rewards)
• Tier 2 rewards (no one): (1.40 normal rewards)
• Tier 3 rewards (first 10): (1.20 normal rewards)
• Tier 4 rewards (first 25): (1.10 normal rewards)

The Effects

This will promote new users and thus grow our community. Furthermore, new users will likely bring new content like Hive account@cryptoeater's League of Legends contest. Our vision is to grow Steemit into something that surpasses the caliber of Reddit and the bottom line is we need a larger community for that to happen.

Follow myself and Hive account@cryptoeater for more suggestions/content. I haven't been very active but plan to be after my exams.
Also if you'd like chuck our friend Hive account@arctan a follow, he literally logs on just to like our posts but might be active in the future haha

Message from Hive account@cryptoeater: "I love the idea of Steemit and feel there is so much potential here. I would love to see this platform grow and flourish and but we NEED more variety in our content and more users. Luckily for us, these two things come hand in hand. As we grow our community, there will inevitably be more variety in content and as there is more variety in content, our community will inevitably grow."