Redmine

I am planning to contribute some development work to Redmine.
The problem : it is not clear to me what process my patches (that I hope will come)
will go through. I have read this [[http://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/Contribute]]
but it is still not clear to me:

1. If I have created a patch ,open an issue or attach it to an open one,
   how do I know that somebody have reviewed it? There is a Watch option for the issue
   itself but it will work only if somebody have commented on the issue itself.
   The problem is that we use redmine internally ,so if I patch something I want to know
   if it will make into the main version in order to not break something on upgrade.
   Something like "we have reviewed your code and it is rejected/will be committed".

1. Where the main discussion of new features should be started ?Forums,Issues?
2. How the "important" features are selected by users adding +1 to issues (there is no
   "rate" button), by developers ,both ?Who and how do you guys decide on what is going
   to enter the Roadmap (is the Roadmap the list of issues you are going to resolve?)

Thanks
Evgeny