Thanks for the ping.
You appear confused.
I use the word “dear” as a salutation. It's part of the greeting at the beginning of a piece of correspondence. Except for the absolutely most informal, I begin all my correspondence thusly. This electronic missive is an example.
I'm sure that you've received letters in the mail, or even e-mails that begin, “Dear Alex [or whatever your name is in the non-virtual world],”.
As a point of differentiation, one usually follows the name of the addressee with a comma if the correspondence is casual or personal, and with a colon if it is formal or a matter of business or law. Since I don't consider my posts here to be formal, or matters of business or law, I always follow my correspondent's name with a comma.
Didn't they teach you this stuff in third grade?
Anyway, your use of the word “dear” in your post to Petronski is more in the form of a term of endearment. In this context, one wouldn't say that it was a greeting or part of the salutation.
As a term of endearment, one might use it with someone in whom one is romantically interested, or with someone of lesser rank for whom one has affection. My mother often called us "dear," and certainly, as her children, we were of a lesser rank than her. We NEVER called her "dear" back.
One might also possibly use the word in an ironic way, when one is not actually endeared to the other, but rather is trying to communicate, rather, some sort of hostility toward the other. In this sense, it can readily be interpreted as an attempt to insult.
Thus, a reasonable interpretation of your use of the term “dear” in your post to Petronski is that you are trying to tell him that you have some romantic interest in him. In other words, that you're “hitting” on him, or perhaps that you believe that you already have a close, intimate relationship with him.
Another reasonable interpretation is that you're condescending to him, in that you believe that you're his superior.
Another reasonable interpretation is that you're being sarcastic toward him, and treating him disrespectfully or with hostility.
I'm not a mind-reader, so I don't know which of these is what's happening, but they are all reasonable inferences from what you said.
If none of these represent your true meaning, then perhaps you should try to use the language in a more appropriate manner, so as not to give rise to these or other possible misinterpretations.
sitetest
Namely this, I sincerely love my neighbors as God instructed me to do:
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. – Matthew 22:35-40
So when speaking to a beloved Freeper I often end my remark with a "dear" such as "dear brother in Christ" or "dear sitetest."
To a person very angry with me I have been known to say "There is nothing you can say or do that will make me stop loving you." It is the truth.
In sum, Christian agape love (Matt 22) is not a romantic thing at all.