Is Ancestry rationing matches?

[TonyV]

A few weeks ago I started to see something odd about my Ancestry matches (I have several thousands each of paternal and maternal matches). The total for the Paternal and Maternal matches had the same last three numbers i.e. the hundreds. Coincidence I thought, but the following day I had exactly the same number of new matches for both sides and the hundreds were again identical. Ever since then I've checked and the hundreds have increased by exactly the same amount for paternal and maternal sides and therefore the hundreds are still identical. This even includes a couple of days when I had no new matches.

I am not a statistician but I refuse to believe that this could be happening by fluke or chance. It appears that Ancestry is doling out the same number of matches for the two categories deliberately. Has anyone else noticed this or have an opinion about what is going on?

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

In the last couple of weeks I've had a day where every match had no matches followed by a day where every match was the parent/child of an existing tester, yesterday just four matches, each with an icon suggesting one gender yet the name suggesting the other.

The numbers are still steady but they seem to be one type per day. Pre protools I had matches every day but since I can go 10-15 days without, it feels like it happens when some new 'feature' is being rolled out, as if that's the priority they have above all others.

Edit; I don't usually check the totals by parent but my figures just say updated March 2024, I'll post them here and check  in a few days to update

Pat 8,995 matches
7,253 matches

[Biggles50]

I do not look daily.

25, 35, 28, 36, 6

These are the new matches in the last 7 days that have been received for each of the DNA tests that I manage.

Paternal and Maternal mix of each set of new matches for each DNA test is all over the place

[tornado]

Ancestry has also stopped you from viewing your hints , unless you are subscribed!

[mrcakey]

I have no access to Ancestry's systems so this is just conjecture, but I work in IT and quite often we run "batch processes" overnight. These will, for instance, scour through new or changed data sets to look for matches which they'll then present to users once the batch is run. I imagine they have a lot of these processes running and maybe they run ones relevant to your ancestors every other night.

[TonyV]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I have no doubt that some kind of batch process occurs every day at Ancestry but it seemed to me that Ancestry might also be rationing matches and that the process included some kind of identical limit on each side matches. However, from your comments it seems that mine have been a massive fluke. I'll keep looking and update you if things remain the same.

We know that Ancestry is about to release a new automatic clustering tool for Pro subscribers and some have already seen new 'buttons' appearing then disappearing again. I guess that it's possible that they've diverted staff to that project and taken them off the "new match desks".