I didn't find any information epochtalk/epochtalk-vue is port of epochtalk/epochtalk front end, no wonder some people assuming Epochtalk is abandoned. But since epochtalk/epochtalk last updated on "May 11, 2021", i'm not sure whether to interpret whether the back-end already ready for production usage or the developer currently focus on front-end
epochtalk/epochtalk is not maintained anymore
epochtalk/epochtalk-vue is the Epochtalk V2.0 VueJS version that is currently in the works. Both back-end and front-end were ported to use the VueJS syntax.
Right now they still have a bit more code to port to Vue and should be operational.
After that we can "argue" about CSS, layout style etc. We can even have a contest who forks the github repo and designs the best UI/UX theme for it. Dunno, just an idea