> > Do maintainers generally pass on maintaining things when upstream > is shown to be inactive or unresponsive? >
depends on the app. I have passed a package to other people when the upstream and I could not work together. Other times people just fork the app. Sometimes, if you can join the community involved with the app and understand what is going on things become easier. patches sent to mailing lists are often taken. I have found that some upstreams think my patches are for screw ups in debian and taking the patch is unimportant. A few mails to a mailing list and it seems everyone else had patched it and just not said anything. Point is, persistance pays off. Someone may not trust you right away. Some people like patches created by diff -c, other by diff -u. Learn what the upstream wants and be as giving as possible. Follow their code conventions. Patches with variable and function names way different from upstream style is just asking for trouble.
