Modding Request question, need clarification

So there's this mod that I've been using for a long time that hasn't been updated in 2 years, and the mod creator seems to have disappeared, having not logged in for 6 months and not posted anything basically since the newest update of the mod. Miraculously, the mod has remained imperfect, but still reasonably playable for the most part until recently.

So my question before posting anything regarding it is this. Is it appropriate to ask if someone else would be interested in updating it if it's seemingly been abandoned with likely no way to seek permission from the original creator? Just would like to know before I post anything about it here.