Does that mean these 17 modules are all denied? (I ask because I submitted one proposal.)

Nope, it means they're accepted! Contrary to my (and probably most people's) intuition, not getting a response from the modules list in a timely manner is an indication that your module is approved. Check out the details here: http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html#namespace. The relevent section reads:

The module list maintainers themselves are mostly lurkers. You need not wait for a response. Generally a lack of response can be taken as acceptance of the module name being proposed.

-sam

You can find this detail, and a lot more information about CPAN and PAUSE, in my book.