The current site owner no longer has interest in maintaining the site. I am talking to him about taking it over and getting it back up and running!
That will be nice if you could get the site back up.
Firstbits are encouraging spamming the blockchain... So I think it is good it is gone.
How so?
Well the way a first bit is calculated is by it's place in the blockchain, so if an address isn't in the blockchain no firstbits can be correctly calculated.
So lets say for very example purposes I had 1gh356 and you had 1gh354 if you gets coins to your address before me, then you would have 1gh35, and I would get 1gh356, even if my address was created before yours. That is why it is a verifiable system.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Firstbits