But I find it hard to believe that one person can go and fix up all the projects he's hardly ever heard of that depends on that library.
In some ways this is similar to what Linux distros do, but sharing common source control, build system, and test runner makes it easier.
Anyway, just wanted to point out that it's possible you're using Ruby lingo and not general-purpose tech terms. I could be wrong, maybe I just missed the boat.
I think "bundle everything" might make sense to everybody, including Rubyists.
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.7/svn.advanced.vendorbr.htm...
That's where I first read the term, but it predates svn. As far as I know, it's been the common term for committing external dependencies to your own VCS for as long as there's been such a thing as a VCS.
Vendoring means having the physical source code on hand. Not version numbers, not SHAs -- actual checked-out code.