how should people request merge request access?

there was an issue with Monkeysign recently where a known contributor (simonft) couldn't immediately contribute because he didn't have "merge request access" or, more precisely, he wasn't allowed to create new repositories because of the item two in the FAQ documented in the about page (Q: 'I can't create or fork a repository!, A: 'New users are not allowed to create/fork repos, this is on purpose to stop spammers and uncontrolled growth. Please contact us if you need halp.').

simon quickly got access because he was bold enough to bug a 0xacab admin privately over IRC, but I wonder if this is the method you prefer.

i have taken the bold step of documenting an alternative method in the Monkeysign documentation. Basically, I send people to a link in this issue tracker to ease the process for them to ask "fork access". This is the link in case the above doesn't render properly. It should render as an issue with the title "fork permission request" and the body "I need permission to fork the Monkeysign repository to contribute to the project. Please grant me fork access. Thank you."

Is that alright with you guys?

(I was under the impression people would have access to fork repositories here. I understand why completely new projects are not allowed, but I somewhat see forks as being a different kind... I understand if gitlab doesn't allow that kind of fine-grained control, but it feels like a rather strong limitation blocking new contributors that they need to request access before being able to send merge requests...)

Thank you for your consideration and support!