Permissions aren't the problem. But the upstream source of all the forks is wrong if you take a repo private, all stars from folks outside your organization are gone,... So you need GitHub support to restore everything.
And the details how it happened are a bit different but it was a configuration error (making things too secure )
Fair enough, and what I said was wrong too, so it's turtles all the way down!
I butchered Cunningham’s Law, thank you for correcting me, though the name of the law is confusing since it was McGeady who pointed out: "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.", which is what I did, and what the parent comment did, it is attributed to the great Ward Cunningham, creator of the first Wiki, who is a rightful dude. I have nerd-sniped myself on this. At least I'm less wrong now, thank you.
And the details how it happened are a bit different but it was a configuration error (making things too secure )
[I work for Elastic]