I'm skeptical that burn posts are good for anything other than those who already have large stakes. A 0.1% increase in price doesn't mean much of anything for people w/ minnow/fish/carp/whatever-small-fish-descriptor-we're-using-these-days -- but it stacks up pretty quickly for whales.

Even if the number of tokens being burned was large enough to do anything (I doubt that it is**), it would probably be better for the platform at large if it was distributed to smaller users -- hopefully increasing enthusiasm to interact on the platform.

** On an irksome note -- these posts all say "Steem experiment", yet I haven't really seen any kind of follow up post / analysis on whatever the experiment results may be (that said, I haven't really been looking either -- so maybe it's there and I just haven't seen it).

Burning tokens, to me, seems too similar to stock-buyback strategies. Rather than reinvesting profits in development / growth (i.e. increasing demand), the intent is to create scarcity (i.e. decrease supply). It's not hard to find arguments on the pro/con side -- but I'm more persuaded by the "con" side of the argument.

Buybacks are supposed to be funded with excess cash that the business doesn’t need for innovation or expansion

italics and bolding by myself

Considering people will line up around the block for just about any free shit you can sling at them, I would imagine that these tokens that are being burned could be utilized more effectively:

• Sign up for a STEEM account and get $10 worth of STEEM, to start your account!;
• Refer a friend that sticks around for a month (or maybe a friend that makes 20 posts) and get $10!;
• Maybe all new accounts could get slotted into an "account growth" project. Rather than voting for burn-posts, we could simply vote on posts from new users (perhaps after some form of verification to prevent abuse);

It's pretty sad that the best thing that people can come up with is to throw new tokens in the garbage. I would imagine that any price-gains that come from burning are artificial and short-term at best.

I know (even) less about the SBD potato thing -- but it strikes me as kinda-sorta the same thing, but in a different process.

Anyhow -- this turned into a short rant pretty quickly. I didn't mean to aim anything at you, either -- as I know that you're not the wizard behind the curtains.

EDIT: I should have prefaced this entire thing with my standard disclaimer of "I don't really know wtf I'm talking about... I'm just talking."