Hi Lee,

I know the feeling. I am tested on all the platforms and what I do to prevent insanity is use the platforms to screen for potentially meaningful matches, and then switch over to gedmatch where I apply my own parameters to the comparison (and use the same parameters every time). This system guarantees that I'm always comparing apples to apples.

Between you and me and the web, it seems to me that match results on some of the platforms have been getting bigger and bigger over time (more total sharing, more segments, and larger segments). I imagine this has something to do with the hidden incentive the companies have to find closer matches for their customers--- to keep the customers happy they may have been adjusting their match parameters. Meanwhile some of the companies have implemented parameters they claim produce more reliable results (and which may end up making the genetic distance appear further than previously). I believe Ancestry is in the latter category.

--
Adam Cherson,NY, NY
Benyakonski, Kherszon, Rubinovich, Solts, Grodsinski, Levine, Cohen, Kaplan, Lubetski, Karchmer, Horwitz, Rabinovich, Zussman (Lida, Voronova, Dieveniskes, Konvaliski, Smarhon, Vilna)
Genomics Publications and Presentations: https://independent.academia.edu/AdamCherson