WILLIAM Shatner may be new to Reddit - he joined the site last month - but he's already making waves.

The Star Trek star called out the community on the social news network for its racism and bigotry.

"I am apalled [sic] by some of the immature, horrifically racist, sexist, homophobic, ethnic... etc.. posts that are just ignored," he wrote in a comment on the site.

“Why are these accounts still active? While Reddit has done well in getting interest from the mainstream I just wonder if by allowing these children to run rampant and post whatever they feel will cause the most collateral damage if Reddit is biting off it's own nose in taking that step to become a mainstream community."

Shatner also called for Reddit to allow users to switch off private messages.

Some Reddit users took kindly to Shatner's post. Others, not so much.

One user "sluder565" commented that the site worked really well when "Active Moderation" was used.

But user "Karmaisforsuckers" replied "Why don't we just call Obama and have him moderate then, Huh? HUH? MY FREE SPEECH!"

User "NOT_ACTUALLYRELEVANT" replied, pointing out that "Nothing on Reddit is a 'free speech zone'.

"There are subreddits that ban people from posting to Facebook or any Gawker site," the user wrote. (Subreddits are sections of the site devoted to different topics, i.e Star Trek, movies, technology, animals etc).

"Reddit could take a stand up against racism / sexism / homophobia etc, and some subreddits do, but this idea of freedom of speech on Reddit, a privately-owned website, is bullsh*t."

Shatner replied, saying that Reddit was the first "mainstream site" that allows "racists and other hate mongers to group, congregate, incite and spread their hatred".

"There's entire subreddits that allow it," he wrote.

"What mainstream sites do you think are more racist?"

"The fact that someone could come here, debase and degrade people based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference because they ‘have a right’ to do so without worry of any kind of moderation is sending the wrong message, in my humble opinion."

"I don’t pretend to know where the managers of Reddit wish to go with this site but embracing that kind of culture I feel is counterproductive to where this world is heading and I think that is probably hurting this site."

After some users claimed he was out of touch, Shatner reminded them that Reddit's community "rules" ask for users to "remember the human".

"When you communicate online, all you see is a computer screen," the community rules read.

"When talking to someone you might want to ask yourself ‘Would I say it to the person’s face?’ or ‘Would I get jumped if I said this to a buddy?’"

They also require users to "Adhere to the same standards of behaviour online that you follow in real life".

“So are these two points out the proverbial window because the right to freedom of speech supersedes this?” Shatner asked.

“If so, then why haven’t they been removed?”

Shatner's post has received 1458 upvotes, an impressive amount, especially considering he only joined Reddit on the 27th of January.

The Star Trek star participated in an "Ask Me Anything" - a feature of Reddit where people can literally, ask Shatner anything, (as if it needed explaining) - in the Star Trek subreddit.

