He was not working for BFL that time.
So, the thread title ("BFL is keeping...") is false and very misleading.
3c. are any of these orders likely to be part of the 'first batch' shipment from BFL?
Some of them are, not all of them.
The number that will be in the "first batch" is kind of up in the air at the moment, given the current disposition of our first batch. Since we have a limited number of available chips for the first batch, I will not, in good conscience, be
taking a large swath of them.
Well, he works there now, and you can argue the difference between "taking" and "keeping", but the fact is, he gets to decide how many he wants to take. How many other customers get to decide, long after placing their order, how many they actually want? Just the guy that works there.
No other customer is going to be asked to take less than their total order (Giga ordered 4 Mini-rigs on day 1). Josh is in a fairly unique position in that he'd ordered by 26 June but people are going to be upset if he takes all units he upgraded out of the first batch. Josh is the only customer who's going to be expected to take
from Batch 1 than what he actually ordered.