I don't use Twitter, but I've talked about this with friends that do, about why they used Twitter. Their feedback was that they've had good conversations with people through there, and have followers who are clearly getting benefit from their messages.

Unfortunately, this positive side of Twitter is not the one we all hear about all the time. We hear about the noisy, angry, spiteful side.

It would be nice if we could have one without the other, but these problems are common to most of human history, not just digital forums.