1. Authors reward is affected based on my votes timing, directly?
The Authors post does not get the entire vote's weight allocated to its value(Or so it would seem). Only the curator should be penalized for under 30min early voting, not the Author...
Right now, due to some low volume of posts. It is still feasible to spot a "trending page" valued post, under 30min...
Something I noticed as well:
Image Number 3. I Particular voted early... And my vote only contributed 2cents! Compared to Image 1 ( I voted after 
2. As the posts increase and the burden of finding good valuable content increases.
We should move to curation rewards nearer an 1:2 relation. In effect 1/3 goes towards the curators and 2/3 towards the Author. On a later stage. I'll explain how to defend against an gaming attack in part 2.
3. Steemit displays the total post value, to the Author, as well.
This could cause heated debates later on with newcomers. As only the Author's reward is showed after payout. Or simply allow the author to view the total value as it's now, but when the author hovers over the post reveal the split between the Author's reward and the Curation Reward. Also to retain the entire value of the post after payout and simply show the split up rewards Curation/Author when hovering over the amount. This would help alot. You won't have to explain...
4. Currently, upvoting a post on the trending page has a larger, visible, effect.
This is currently incentivising minnows to purposefully upvote-late. As there is a bigger kick.This causes an unneeded ballooning effect. I would recommend only adjusting the visible value of the post upon certain increments. For example 10, 20 votes and final payout.
This should level the posts payouts and not deprive the other posts of rewards, "Just for kicks".
Part two: Gaming the system.
Part three: Trading and Potential gains.
