I like/am comfortable with the colors on the "old" version - they appear to be blue, gray,and white to me.
Now that's the palette for the new layout as well: blue, gray and white.
I would like the background color to be more subtle on the listing pages.
Yes, I noticed that too. It's hard to read the topic titles. I'll make the background lighter.
I would suggest that the date of post be moved to the top line
Since there are no more "breaks" between the posts, the only way to place the post time at the top would be to insert it above the person's user id (on the left side) in the same area that lists user info. I don't think that would be good.