![[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 706685 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 2 395345 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 364510 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 215462 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 210308 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 199936 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 148496 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 143728 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 9 143131 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 137916 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 109030 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 108366 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 107230 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 14 102806 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 100506 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 16 97997 DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 17 97720 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 18 97652 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2) 19 96310 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 85436 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 97951 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 88052 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 3 84012 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 80194 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 69854 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 67438 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 57891 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 49895 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 9 49742 INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 10 44132 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 11 43536 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 42104 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 38109 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 14 38093 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 15 36146 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 35385 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 35287 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 18 34287 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 33891 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 33544 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 558 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 552 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 487 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 4 479 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 437 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 413 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 7 391 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 8 358 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 9 350 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 10 342 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 339 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 12 336 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 329 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 320 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 317 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 16 313 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 17 304 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 18 299 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 295 UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0) 20 256 MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 346343 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 334040 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 227961 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 4 218799 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 212894 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 166698 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 7 161049 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 158637 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 147703 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 10 137636 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 136520 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 12 127170 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 125429 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 14 118229 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 112507 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 16 106193 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 99523 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 98020 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 86437 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 81554 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 88225 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 67069 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 3 26853 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 16150 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 14507 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 6 11945 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 7 11821 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 11328 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 10357 INDIA-D@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 10 9764 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 9143 CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 12 9088 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 13 8755 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 8684 CHAN-MSG@ITSSRV1.UCSF.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 15 8631 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 16 8314 LOOKING@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 17 8191 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50) 18 8018 LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 7831 CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 7672 GERMNEWS@DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1)
