2-3 years ago debian called out for python developers to help port and all the remaining python2 packages to python3 so that in the future we could drop python2 support. Being pretty familiar with python and somewhat familiar with migrating python2 projects I decided to join the project.
The process of porting mostly involved trying to talk to existing maintainers and seeing if they are already porting the packages and if they are not suggesting that you could help if they needed. I have sent dozens of emails and I got maybe 2 replies. Those were direct emails to the maintainers. Eventually I got so frustrated with how slow and disorganized the process was that I decided to drop it.
When I commented that with other debian contributors they expressed that this was a very old problem and that there is not much that can be done about it since the debian developers are volunteers and likely have other responsibilities other than maintaining their packages.
In retrospect I think debian in particular needs an automatic way to ask maintainers every now and then if they are still willing to maintain their respective packages and if they are not or do not respond in a timely fashion, put them up for adoption.