Frances Bell

The help I can offer is to suggest that you search the forums in USing Moodle, maybe the Developers or Themes forum.

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?search=quickmail&id=55

That is a search of the Social Forum for Quickmail, but I suspect a search of USing Moodle forums might help locate the best place to ask your question.

I am not absolutely sure what you mean by overheading.  I think one issue is setting up the expectations for communication (see this site for ideas and resources http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml).

If you have a forum where students can ask about some things e.g.what the client wants but not others e.g. whether their current solution is 'right', then it's important to clarify these ground rules in the forum (and reinforce them too). So the first time an inappropriate question is answered, explain why you won't answer it, the next time ignore it.

IMHO, the student voting solution could create a lot of hassle and distraction, but it might work in your setting - who knows? 

I have one:
Q. What's the difference between the Themes forum and the Social forum?

A. The themes forum is where you find out about themes and the Social forum is where you chat about things that you wouldn't do in one of the support areas, like Using Moodle.

and here is another:

How do you keep a programmer in the shower all day?
Give him a bottle of shampoo which says "lather, rinse, repeat."