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Is English required on Stack Overflow?
Non English question, answer or comment - should I report?

I am not talking about questions in C# and answers in Java. What should we do with posts written in languages that are not English, like this one (now deleted)?

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In the past, I have flagged them for a moderator using the Other: reason. The posts should be closed/temporarily deleted until they are edited.

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Since it's just one among many, a comment should work: Tell them (preferably adding a link) that Stack Overflow uses English. It shouldn't be a serious issue though; much less than 1% of answers are in Spanish.

Personally, I feel we should gently remind people of it, since it is simply really hard for some folks.

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    It's an English language site, though. How can the majority of users evaluate whether the post is spam or offensive if it's in a different language? I know I wish I were multilingual, but I'm not.
    – jonsca
    Oct 22, 2011 at 19:52
  • It's Portuguese actually, but why would it be offensive? Meaning, why assume bad about people(and this is a technical, non-political site also) ? I just feel we should be gentle to them, rather than abruptly closing...
    – Caffeinated
    Oct 22, 2011 at 19:57
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    There's nothing ungentle about closing a question or deleting an answer. People read more into those actions than they should. Most if not all moderators would leave a comment on the deleted answer that still can be read by the user who posted it.
    – jonsca
    Oct 22, 2011 at 20:01
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    I'm not saying it's offensive in any way, but aside from using simple heuristics, there's no way for me to tell, in any language I don't know, not just in this case.
    – jonsca
    Oct 22, 2011 at 20:07

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