Hello STEEM

This is my first post on steem, the traditional introduction post.

Where did I find out about steem? I've been looking for a less intrusive alternative to Facebook and saw steem mentioned as one of the alternatives. I decided to try it out.

What is my online/social networking background? I have a huge, sprawling and now sadly neglected website at www.DaleCozort.com, with some stuff stuff dating back to the late 1990s, as well as two blogs that I need to spend more time with. I was active on the Gather social networking site for many years until it shut down a few years ago. Since then I've been mostly on Facebook and not particularly happy or active there, though I have a few followers and a few hundred friends. In some ways steem reminds me of Gather and I'm hoping that if the site works the way I think it will, I can talk some of my Gather friends into joining me here.

My interests: I'm a writer, with half-a-dozen or so published novels, some traditionally published and some self-pubbed and a lot more on the way. I write mostly science fiction, though if I wasn't writing science fiction I would be writing mysteries and my novels always contain an element of mystery. My day job involves education and computers in a supporting role. I spent many years as a computer programmer and more years teaching computer skills, but have mostly pulled back from that now.

I have a huge range of interests and love to write, so I hope to be very active here. I love to read, as the background to my picture indicates.

Thoughts on steem based on my first few hours here: I like it so far. It has a good feel to it, mainly in that it feels as though members have quite a bit more control than we do on Facebook. I don't quite get the Crypto-currency aspect yet and suspect that it would be more of an incidental bonus for being here rather than a primary motivator. That may change as I get into it more. Money, even crypto-currency, for writing is almost always a good thing.

A social network is only as good as the people on it, so I'll have to see how that works out, but so far it looks good. I'm looking forward to seeing what steem has to offer