converting to ELF by non-maintainer -- just do it?

[joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl (joost witteveen)]

Hello,

I would like to know how whether I should just go ahead and
convert all that isn't ELF yet and release it, or should
I try to contact the maintainer first?

For example, I compiled and packaged the 3 remaining aout
shell packages, but I cannot contact the maintainer
(Ian Murdock, I received a letter from primer.i-connect.net
that debian.org isn't local, so it cannot deliver).

I've seen a lot of people just convert it, I don't know
if all aout developers are equally content with me 
hijacking their packages (Hello comes to mind, but
I guess that's different).

If the consensus is that ELF has priority, then I would 
like to spend some time next week to convert all remaining
"easy" packages (i.e. compile without patching).

-- 
joost witteveen
            joost@rulcmc.leidenuniv.nl
          joostje@dds.hacktic.nl