I find that the background, while patterned, is too washed-out to really be distracting/tacky/annoying, so it's pretty good.

Very perky, my friend ;p But very good - clean and easy to navigate, in a logical order that will save us the fuss of Link Giving for every newbie. THANK you.

I didn't even see the patterened background until I zoomed out; I rather like it. It could indeed make text hard to read though, if the white backing box were to vanish. It's not really a problem for me but I wonder - if it's a problem for others, could you adjust it so that instead of being a whitewashed, watered-down version of images on a black(ish) background, it's got all those pictures on a paler background (white, preferably)? That might make it less troublesome. Or moreso; I couldn't say.

But overall, excellent job!

...for whom the background only shows up as a teeny-tiny strip on the very very far right?

Is there a link to the background? I wanna see it for real...and I can't do "view background image."

Don't get me wrong, I do like the new design. However, I find myself agreeing with IndeMaat with regards to the background. Not that I don't like it, but it does distract the eye somewhat. That, or I'm naturally easily distracted. Granted, the latter is true.

I like that there are now dates attached to the latest missions reports.

I'm not much a fan of pattern backgrounds. They can distract from the text / make the text harder to read.

One odd thing about the new front page is it seems to be a little harder to access by mobile phone. I just checked it out and everything except the welcome banner was hidden. Of course that could just be my phone.

I think that it will be easier for people who have just found out about the PPC to navigate the wiki. I like it.