Simon
I disagree with that. Just becasue you don't get emotional feedback from other doesn't mean you aren't getting emotional reward yourself. Perhaps you just imagine other people's reactions when accessing your music.
How can you say that? Do you think i'm lying or trying to suppress what I feel? I know myself much enough to interpret my own feelings. I did NOT feel anything at all. If I would have noticed that it was a bad decision from my own POV I might have cancelled the action of starting WinMX, but since I didn't, I just turned it on based on that other people will be able to download my music, which was my original intention.
As you have stated, people are complex and the reasons and motivations are not always obvious. Much comes from subconsious motivation so even though we might not be aware of th reason why we do something, it doesn't make it alturistic.
You know pretty much what I consider subconscious. My decisions are directed by my motivation, the information is the tool, not the source of action.

You know i'm starting to wonder how you really define altruism. It is almost like you think of it as opposite to egoism. I think altruism and egoism is not the unit of a scalar, but fundamentally different components.
And does punishing themselves not make them feel better (even if just for a moment)? Like you say, people's minds are complex indeed and the motivations may not be immediately obvious. I still think it is a big leap to suggest that they are alturistic though.
I didn't say that. I said that they act against themselves, sort of negative egoism.