What a helper cannot do#

A helper can write and rewrite a language freely. A helper cannot make a translation live.

Only an admin sets the ready flag, which is the thing readers depend on. Until they do, what you have written sits in the database and nobody outside the helper area sees it.

Why, said plainly#

This reads as distrust unless the reason is given, so here it is.

Access can be granted before trust is. Somebody can be given the tools on their first day, because the cost of a mistake is bounded. Nothing they write reaches a reader until somebody has read it.

A half finished posting cannot go out by accident. Saving is something you do twenty times while working through a description. If saving published, one of those twenty would go out mid sentence.

The rule buys both of those at the price of one step by somebody else.

What the flag actually guards#

A translation is shown only when it is marked ready. Before that:

• The posting appears in the original language, with an English only notice.
• Any field you have left blank falls back to the original, even after the flag is set.
• A translation marked ready must carry a title, a summary and a description in that language.

Two exceptions where saving is publishing#

Team names and tag names have no draft state. They appear wherever they are used as soon as you save.

The site says so on the editor for both. See What a helper can do.

What to do when something is finished#

Nothing. There is no submit button and no queue to join.

An admin sees a finished translation in their own audit view, which lists what is translated and what is not. If something has been sitting finished for a while, say so wherever you normally reach the team.