> If upstream denies or ignores your pull requests, you're dead in the water
No, this is very wrong. You can maintain a fork. You can do that while maintaining positive relations with them to see if eventually they do decide to take the PR.
Of course nobody wants to do that because it's a lot of work. So what's really happening here is you're trying to play hot potato with a feature that nobody wants to maintain, not even you. I sympathize, I also have patches sitting around in various projects that went nowhere. There just isn't enough time in the day for unpaid volunteers to look at every patch.
No, this is very wrong. You can maintain a fork. You can do that while maintaining positive relations with them to see if eventually they do decide to take the PR.
Of course nobody wants to do that because it's a lot of work. So what's really happening here is you're trying to play hot potato with a feature that nobody wants to maintain, not even you. I sympathize, I also have patches sitting around in various projects that went nowhere. There just isn't enough time in the day for unpaid volunteers to look at every patch.