I was only a page for about a cumulative year (between 2003 and 2004). After that, my jobs took me away from the audience side of the production. But based on my experiences, a lot of this sounds fabricated (my first reaction: "How come nobody ever flashed me?").
Note the contradictory quotes: "I'm not saying getting drunk will guarantee you a seat, but it can help" and "People would line up at 4 a.m. or camp out the night before and make it their entire day, and those who came at 7 or 8 we would have to turn away." The latter could actually be true (at least, during the later Barker years while I was there). I'm not great at determining when people are intoxicated, but if it happened, it certainly wasn't rampant.
Other parts of the article that I find suspect:
Who's offering actual reasons to audience members as to why they didn't get selected as contestants? If you're a page, you don't know why the producers didn't pick someone. If you're a producer (or on the staff assisting the producer), then you know better than to say something as specific and unhelpful as "It's because you said 'Woo.'"
As Ted pointed out, why would 500 people show up on a day when there weren't any tapings scheduled?
There wouldn't be a mass panic in the control room if the wrong contestant went onstage because Bob misheard a bid. Especially not if they caught it during the act in which it happened. They certainly wouldn't proceed with the show anyway and then decide to not air the episode after the fact. Heck, we've
seen what happens when
the wrong contestant plays a game onstage.
And, of course, the ever-present use of "Showcase Showdown" instead of "Showcase."
