Module development and code questions

I'm in a panick today as several of our images on searcy.com are missing. I use IMCE as the tool to upload images to articles and everything has worked fine until today. The images are missing from the files folder (I checked). The only thing I can think of right now is that the file permissions for that files folder allows people to delete the images somehow. Can anyone guide me in the right direction here???? I'm mega-panicked.

Jay

OK, this may very well be a stupid question, but how do I access images in my module's directory? (Technically I want to have them in a subdirectory to my module's directory, but I assume one follows from the other.) I have no desire to use the image.module functionality since they pertain just to my module, nor do I want to have to put them in the /files directory. Sure such a thing must be possible, right? What am I doing wrong? If it's not possible, what is the intended solution?

I'm developing a contract management module for Drupal which needed separate database tables, given that those present in the default aren't enough for defining contracts and contract lifecycles. Anyway, I've defined a new table and a new module. The new module is working as I want it to ... the preview is ok and the form_validate is ok. However, when I want to edit the form with http://path/to/drupal/?q=node/X/edit, I see the correct form (the same form as when I add a contract) but the fields are not prepopulated.

Is there a module for 4.7 to do this? To make user created content editable by anyone? I was thinking like a never ending story kind of thing, where someone writes something, then the next person writes more, and so on. Is there a module or setting to allow (certain) pages or books to be editable by anyone?

We have modules that display most popular posts in the sidebar.
What I want is to have my main content (story,blog) to be arranged in most popular first, rather than reverse chronological order. By default it should be displayed in reverse order, but they should have an option to display it as most popular first, or even random order. which is a great way to find missed content.
plus ability to select which categories will be displayed in popular list. I don't want news category to be included for example.

I have OG. Is there some way to put a custom logo on each group home page or navigation menu? Thanks!

-ron