![[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 1216196 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 426436 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 251228 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 247670 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 229932 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 179362 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 168956 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 157025 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 9 150553 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V0.1a) 10 148132 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 141939 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 12 126357 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 13 125154 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 124478 DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 15 121650 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 16 118628 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 117064 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 18 106716 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 96936 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 93858 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 102265 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 89857 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 86260 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 86172 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 72601 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 70498 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 61312 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 60793 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 51322 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 10 50556 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 11 46445 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 44744 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 43359 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 41772 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 38586 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 37403 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 17 36347 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 18 36180 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 36118 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 35999 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 609 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 566 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 546 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 4 496 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 461 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 421 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 7 402 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 8 381 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 378 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 371 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 11 351 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 346 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 339 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 333 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 332 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 329 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 17 322 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 302 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 19 290 UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0) 20 265 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 395934 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 394144 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 249186 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 248380 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 232585 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 192571 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 185921 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 183785 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 9 175578 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 10 167011 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 11 151915 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 149535 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 146566 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 124882 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 15 121206 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 16 120477 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 17 111629 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 18 110529 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 107882 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 106072 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 91867 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 67020 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 27999 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 18191 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 5 17689 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 12385 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 12302 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 8 11629 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 10744 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 10 9829 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 9501 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 12 9391 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 9106 CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 14 8764 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 15 8681 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 8247 LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 17 8233 GERMNEWS@DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 7709 HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 7654 CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 7170 LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
