Reddit co-founder tells 'fellow geeks' to 'stop being sexist'



Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is sick of the sexism he sees on his own site, and he wants it to stop.

In a post titled 'Dear Fellow Geeks: WTF?' Ohanian responds to the Adria Richards scandal, in which Richards tweeted a picture of men sitting behind her at a tech conference she said were making sexist remarks.

One of those men was then fired from his job and Richards was fired from her job at SendGrid.



Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has asked users to 'take responsibility' for their sexist actions and stop harassing women

The backlash against Richards and inspired Ohanian to weigh in.



'These amazing open platforms for speech work because an internet connection is all we need to share an idea with the connected world,' he wrote. 'What makes this freedom so awesome is not simply that we have it, but how we exercise it. Your tweets, your comments, and your upvotes matter.



'The comments (and support for them) I’ve seen over the past few days have really disappointed me and I really hope this is a chance for us to reflect on how we use these tools to foster the tech community. This isn't 'political correctness,' this is you having the courage to use your words to create an environment that promotes an open exchange of ideas -- not alienate people and certainly not terrorize them.

'Growing up, we typically weren't picked first for sports, but were first on the Quake II server. Few people really understood our peculiar hobbies or how amazing it was to see 'Hello, world' for the first time. Plenty of us got used to being ignored. Many of us were bullied. But what did we learn from it -- empathy or hate?

Ohanian has long argued for a 'benevolent' Internet

He also wrote that Reddit's users are more than 'not-poor straight white men,' who should be more willing to be see things from other people's point of view.



He concludes: 'the internet won't live up to its full potential without getting the best out of everyone.'

The full post can be viewed at Ohanian's site .

Reddit community reaction to the post was as divided as the reaction to the Richard's scandal, the Huffington Post noted.



One user, BRDtheist wrote: He's right that the larger and more upsetting problem is the otherwise kind and reasonable people who spew sexist bile at times like these.'

Meanwhile HolidaySHRIMP argued: 'That c*** deserved to get fired. Poor guy just being a guy. Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us!'