...The one part that stands out to me as a weak link is the "reply" vs. "reply to all" mechanism. It seems prone to human errors and to things like vacation messages. How would conflicts be handled (one person rejects and one approves)?
I agree that the accept=Reply, reject=Reply To All feels a little hacky but I also see there's not a lot of great options. Would subject line = approve/reject be a better compromise? Maybe the default line could have "accept" and no subject would mean "reject". So reply would mean accept and delete the subject and reply would mean reject?
Background: that's how current apache mail list moderation system works. Anybody who moderated any apache list will feel at home with proposed system.
Vadim