While unfortunate that the website is inactive, then any employer is pretty much free to let go any employee (and the employee dispute this if they have grounds for it from contracts). Not to circle back to the left/right topic, but if you think this is "messed up", then I'm not sure how you think the world works at all.

If the love for that site is so great, I'm sure someone will pick it up. Otherwise, I'd doubt "size of love" we are talking about here.