Passive voice in user docs is not good

Awhile ago there was a brief discussion here about the over-use of “you” and especially “if you want to…” in some of our user guides.

I notice that @peewee has rewritten several chapters of Getting Started 7.5 in a convoluted passive form. This wording avoids “you” but throws out over twenty years of best practice in user-friendly writing – at least in English. IMO this change is detrimental to the quality of that book.

It is entirely possibly to avoid most or all uses of “you” without resorting to passive voice. When I next revise the Writer Guide, I will make appropriate changes and demonstrate how to do it much better.