As a new poster myself who has also gotten into arguments with some of the established posters I can sympathize a little. I've been derided by phil and mocked a couple of times by jlogic and others, mostly while having a fairly long argument with rogerclee who ironically was very polite through the whole thing.
Anyway, people will always raise to the defense of known posters, that is normal. It is human nature to rally behind the people you respect when they are threatened by an unknown outsider. You are not going to change this and in 7 years when you are the known poster I'd question whether or not you still think it should change. They earned that respect through countless conversations proving the merit and thoughtfulness of their posts. Appeal to authority is not always a logical fallacy and when the context is complex and highly subjective, it rarely ever is. Experience and merit count for an awful lot in this context for very valid reasons.
I've recently read several of the threads that were the genesis for this thread and I have to say that phil is right when he picked this quote out as one of your key issues.
HighLow21, on 2012-February-29, 12:19, said:
I may not be the best bridge player in the world, but I know when I'm right.
Even the best bridge player in the world would question if they are right when their peers universally disagree with them. And the implication here is not that I think you are peers with those that have disagreed with you, far from it, but even if you were the best bridge player in the world, your statement is still flawed.
This leads me to the 2nd issue I see. You paint far to much in black and white. You may not agree with the 1
♠ overcall, you may not like it but even you upvoted jlogic when he gave the full explanation of why he would do it. Sure he could go down 1100, but the extreme rarity of that is dwarfed by the chances of a double game swing in his favor. Regardless of whether or not that changes how you would bid in that situation calling the overcall ludicrous is a very black and white statement when the issue is far more subjective and nuanced.
Which brings me to the final issue I see. Respect. You keep referring to the many ad hominem attacks made against you. In actuality they are not ad hominem attacks. An ad hominem attack is saying you are wrong because you are a clown, not saying you are a clown because you are wrong. There is a subtle but important difference, one is a logical fallacy the other is just being disrespectful(it might help you see the difference if you consider that you were in fact a professional clown).
And they have been disrespectful, no doubt, but they are just returning the disrespect that they see you giving by calling people's bids ludicrous and actually someone else made quite a lengthy list of examples which I am sure you can recall.
The point being, while you may not be calling people names, you are being no less disrespectful and honestly quite a lot more disrespectful and generally initiating the disrespect.
Anyway, I am sorry about your girlfriend, I hope she gets better and I hope you don't take this to harshly I suffer a lot of the same issues which my decades of trolling forums has helped me learn to spot and vanquish in my own posts.