Offering assistance and discussing upkeep / releases for vtprotobuf

Hello everyone,

I'd like to discuss the future maintenance of vtprotobuf. As an avid user from Datadog, I've recognized its potential in enhancing protobuf message operations. However, recent activity in the repository has been limited, with the last release dating back to January.

To bolster vtprotobuf's capabilities for developers, I propose exploring a more active maintenance and release cycle. Acknowledging the demands of open-source projects, I'm here to extend a hand, along with some of my coworkers from Datadog, to offer assistance.

Although notable bugs and promising ideas exist in pull requests and issues (like https://github.com/planetscale/vtprotobuf/pull/83 and https://github.com/planetscale/vtprotobuf/issues/54), no PRs have been merged since the beginning of the year. We're enthusiastic about bridging this gap and improving vtprotobuf's efficiency and robustness.

In this regard, I suggest opening a discussion on project maintenance and future releases. Our goal is collaborative growth, not imposition. Whether it's contributing code, managing issues, updating documentation, or handling releases, we are more than willing to step in.

Let's collectively ensure that vtprotobuf remains a valuable resource for developers. Your insights are vital, and I'm excited about the potential improvements we can achieve.

Looking forward to your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you for your time and consideration.

This issue does not name a file, test, or code entry point. Start by reviewing pull request #83, issue #54, and the repository’s release history; done means the maintainers agree on a maintenance and release plan with clear ownership.