Reconsider Passive Voice Detection

[LifeIsADeflatingVest]

Yoast's passive voice detection is problematic, for two reasons that I think the developing team should consider.

1) False Positives

Passive voice detection is sometimes outright wrong:

2) Do We really Want to Ban Passive Voice?

This is an ideological matter, but I would ask you to reconsider this demonization of passive voice. I understand that, from a developer's perspective, it's attractive to be able to find one-fits-all solutions. But, put simply, passive voice does have its uses.

For example:

The part of Hegelian philosophy related to this study revolves around the triad comprising thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

How do you even attempt to use active voice there?

Or, how about this one:

We might characterise these peculiar hybrids of hyperbole as a series of immense Gothic bridges thrown between the universe of discourse and the forces of history

Would the alternative be "immense Gothic bridges that we threw" ???

As I said, I understand this from a developer's perspective; I'm a developer myself. But I'm also an English literature specialist, and I feel very uncomfortable seeing this push to effectively ban passive voice. I don't want to sound too melodramatic (obviously, this isn't very high on the priority list), but when we design technology, we should also be considering the repercussions involved — and yeah, that's passive voice 😉