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When reviewing new answers, I came across one in Spanish. I assume that English is the only allowed language.

The problem is that I can't find that written anywhere. The Help Center has some guidance for asking/answering questions, but none of these posts describe any rules about language.

Another example is our rule about posting <pre> text instead of terminal screenshots. I know it's a rule because I've seen senior members enforcing it, but I can't find that in the help center.

It doesn't seem right to enforce rules that we only assume exist.

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Some of the rules aren't in the Help Center. There could be several reasons for that, e.g. the rule that answers may not be in Spanish does not apply to Spanish Language Stack Exchange but it has the same Help Center articles as all other sites in the network.

Most rules, including the reasons why they are as they are, can be found on Meta Stack Exchange. The ones you're looking for are:

Some of these rules have their own post on Unix & Linux Meta as well:

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    Thanks, I was hoping there was a more consolidated way than getting/staying familiar with the entire meta site.
    – Stewart
    Commented Aug 22, 2020 at 12:50
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    @stewart sadly, there isn't. And it's a pain, yes, but it's what you get when the rules are sort of figured out by the community as we go along. When in doubt, search meta here, and meta.stackexchange.com or post a question as you did. You can also try in chat.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 15:27
  • @terdon, also, if SE cared, it could make the help pages editable per-site, by the site moderators, which would deal nicely with the "figured out by the community" part...
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 18:26
  • @ilkkachu the moderators can edit unix.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic and parts of the tour. The problem with making all pages editable is that it's a pain to merge future changes in the template. Maybe not for one site, but if all 170+ sites in the network would make changes on their own site...
    – Glorfindel
    Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 18:39
  • @Glorfindel, oh yes, the merging would be a pain... But in any case, there doesn't seem to be much space for site-specific guides in the Ask a question view. If I open it from a non-logged-in browser, I get a small popup with minimal guidance on asking a question in general, and then there's a link to unix.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask in the sidebar. I can't even see a link to unix.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic anywhere... Let alone something where we could add even "Please don't post images of text, and do use code formatting".
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 19:35
  • (and yes, I was talking about the help pages at first, but then it just occurred to me to look at what the Ask a question page actually looks like)
    – ilkkachu
    Commented Aug 23, 2020 at 19:36
  • @ilkkachu According to the announcement of its new version, the ask page has some room for customization. It would make sense to create a U&L Meta post to discuss it.
    – fra-san
    Commented Aug 25, 2020 at 15:37

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