![[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]](https://www.lsoft.com/images/HDR-LISTSERV-sm.gif)
There are many possible ways to measure the relative "importance" or "size" of LISTSERV sites: number of lists, number of subscribers, number of messages delivered, etc. In most cases, the number of messages delivered is used to rank mailing list managers, because it is the most accurate measurement of the amount of activity on the server. But, depending on what you are looking for, other variables may be more appropriate. There are currently three LISTSERV "Top 20" lists, ranking the various servers according to:
In addition, you can view a list of the Top 20 lists in the network (by number of subscribers).
The statistics are gathered daily by a monitor at L-Soft which polls all the LISTSERV sites that participate in the "open" LISTSERV network over the worldwide Internet. Corporate servers operating in a "closed" environment are not included.
The statistics are organized in monthly reports. The message volume figures are a flat average of the accumulated traffic for the entire month. Thus, a server that delivers 300,000 messages per month will show a daily average of 10,000 messages. In practice, there is a lot less traffic during the weekend, and even during business days there can be significant fluctuations (~30%). The list statistics (number of lists, number of subscribers, largest lists in the network) are measured as of the last day in the month.
For the current month, the message volume figures are averaged based on the number of days that have elapsed. In practice, the figures are not very meaningful in the first few days, especially if the month starts on a weekend. In that case it is best to refer to the previous month for more accurate figures.
A fourth "Top 20" list is available for the more technically oriented: Number of messages generated by the server. This corresponds to the number of mail messages created by the server while processing postings to its mailing lists. LISTSERV delivers its mail using an intelligent mail delivery function called DISTRIBUTE, which improves mail delivery times and reduces bandwidth usage by spreading the delivery chore over scores of participating servers. Each of these servers processes the recipients for its service area (typically its organization or campus). In most cases, DISTRIBUTE simply alters the manner in which the mail is delivered, and the number of messages forwarded to other sites for optimized delivery is roughly equal to the number of messages received by other sites for the same purpose. In some cases, however, this is not the case, either because the server elected to serve a much wider service area than its own organization, or because it is explicitly forwarding all its deliveries to another machine (for instance, many mainframe-based servers forward their mail to a workstation or PC for delivery).
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 537261 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 2 439277 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 367065 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 236453 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 5 175935 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 152613 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 141389 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 8 137628 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 127723 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 112659 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 11 110109 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 12 97143 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 1.0) 13 95593 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 94265 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 15 82269 SEGATE (OpenVMS V6.1) 16 81984 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 17 78404 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 18 78160 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 76994 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3) 20 75113 YALEVM (VM/HPO 5.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 93877 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 80343 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 77240 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 66187 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 64575 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 55755 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 7 48941 INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 8 44709 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 9 41996 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 39952 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 11 38630 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 37080 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 34993 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 34920 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 15 34016 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 33075 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 32621 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 1.0) 18 31903 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 31498 VTVM1 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 30944 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 535 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 522 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 457 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 429 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 396 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 6 391 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 7 382 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 8 341 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 9 334 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 327 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 313 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 311 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 13 309 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 14 304 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 15 297 UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0) 16 286 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 271 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 18 265 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 19 250 MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 243 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 336636 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 288285 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 204091 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 4 175050 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 165931 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 6 153251 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 146072 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 142654 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 126895 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 10 123483 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 11 108854 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 12 107616 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 13 97501 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 95451 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 15 94432 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 1.0) 16 91191 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 17 81470 YALEVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 18 78751 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 76715 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 76151 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 84874 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 25515 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 15646 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 13845 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 5 11591 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 11074 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 7 9957 INDIA-D@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 8 9504 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 9210 CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 10 8683 CHAN-MSG@ITSSRV1.UCSF.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 11 8642 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 12 8402 LOOKING@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 13 8342 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 14 8155 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 15 8141 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 1.0) 16 7781 LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 17 7757 CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 7551 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 19 7058 GERMNEWS@DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 20 6847 HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.1)
