Can the GitWeb interface handle merge requests? If so, can you turn this feature on? This is a much more public and interactive method for contributing than simply emailing patches to the mailing list.
No GitWeb can't. Indefero (
https://projects.goldelico.com) had tried to provide a similar method, but Indefero is too slow for a really big git repository like the Linux kernel.
Well, we closely follow the development process kernel.org is doing and they also do not use GitHub and merge requests, just GitWeb and patches/pull requests by e-mail. This is sometimes a little old-fashioned (and AFAIR they have started to think about better ways), but running a different method in the back-end than in the front-end needs a good reason.
On the other hand here is no problem of giving you write access to
https://github.com/goldelico/letux-kernel so that you can run a feature branch there. You just need to register with
https://projects.goldelico.com, provide your SHA key and let me know the user name. This would allow you to push new material directly to branches, like all other members of the Letux kernel Development Team (see left column of
https://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-kernel/) .
Or as you already have proposed, I have added
https://dev.pyra-handheld.com/kernel to my local remotes. So just mailing me a commit hash is enough to let me know what to pull in. Or you can place a branch for-letux-4.19-next or pyra-defconfig or similar there, give me a notice if there is something new and I can merge it every now and then.
From a quality gate perspective the second method seems to be better and fits better in the well established workflow.
Finally I am not sure that merge requests are more interactive than mailing patches. In both methods the patches need review and comments. On a public mailing list they are run like multi-party discussions where everyone can jump in. On GitHub I admit that I don't know how this works. Most likely it is just a front-end sending out an e-mail notification to the repo owner that there is a new merge request to be taken care of, but I am open to learn about how it works.