As far as I heard Crogge (the admin of Crogge's Server (TBC, WoTLK realms) is currently seeking the admins/devs of AlphaWoW... so all hope is not yet lost!
Update: Currently the AlphaWoW TBC Realm has merged with Croggesserver's TBC realm!
An year a go Croggesserver merged with another server - TruWoW's TBC realm.
No, I have no real clue why they shut down everything.
This is the official statement by their team: (source)
AlphaWoW is closing
Posted on: 20-08-2012 @ 20:54
Dear everyone,
We regret to inform you that AlphaWoW has been scheduled for closing.
It has been a greatest honor to have been involved in this project and this community, for all of us. AlphaWoW has officially come to life in June, 2007, and has therefore reached over 5 years of lifespan. Even though it is always saddening to be on the end of the road, we'd like you to remember and to focus on the things that kept us united as a community throughout the entire time.
Thank you for all the time you've spent here, all the good memories you've brought us and all the good words you've shared on the pages of AlphaWoW's history.
This will be remembered.
For all our donators from the past few months - Your donations will be refunded. We do not want to make anyone feel put at a disadvantage like this. The rest of the funds that were used to pay the bills, we decided to transfer all of it to Operation ShareCraft - A gamers initiative to support children living in poverty. We felt like this is the right thing to do and chose this charity project since it has a remote connection to the game itself.
To come ahead of the questions, we do not plan to hand the AlphaWoW project over to anyone directly (Quite frankly there hasn't been anyone who would want to take over the project in full so far). This includes our core, databases, domains, forums and any related code. Of course any staff member is absolutely free to apply any knowledge gained to any other project.
The thing we do offer is a referral to any other project that could be a successor of AlphaWoW or a new haven for AlphaWoW players. This could be another private server or simply a community page.
In the end, we'd like to express our gratitude for:
Marco - The original creator of WoW.vtwout.net - All of this would not be possible if it wasn't for you.
All the Admins who took care of the place throughout the years:
Iota, Centaur, JoVY, Avy, Vero, Ysk, Toploader, Lyn, Rubix
All the developers and gamemasters, past and present, who made it possible to keep this place together.
And finally, all the players, without whom, there wouldn't be AlphaWoW as we remember it.
The server will be online until the end of 31st of August, 2012.
