I think the developer thread idea could work. It would mean only having to look at a certain number of threads and if the moderators didnt mind, perhaps people could submit things they felt were important for consideration.
Some extra stickies which deal with questions such as "when is the patch due" would probably help too.
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That's a good idea actually.
Back when I beta'd SWG (and before) that's how the devs did things, they made their own threads (though they did post in others) and tended to stay focused in them.
Probably made it a lot easier for them to post, navigate and respond.