Really? Is beta.bitcointalk.org legit the latest version? It's been 3 years and this is it? What is it being coded in... assembly?
If I remember correctly, the budget for the site was in the tens of thousands of BTC. At today's value, it'd probably be a $50MM bid. I'm thinking the admins were swindled in the bid... I think it should go back open or at least make a more open competition for the new software.
Edit: Found the source. It's freaking Javascript... that's why. Who would want that ungodly mess to manage? ew.
Edit2:
https://github.com/epochtalk/epochtalk for those that can't google.