![[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 1202477 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 262850 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 245811 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 232281 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 223414 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 181896 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 175065 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 172134 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 170828 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 164583 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 159291 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 12 140791 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 13 125312 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 119566 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 15 114835 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 16 114472 DEARN (VM/SP 7) 17 111558 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3) 18 108117 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 106884 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 105790 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 136412 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 106087 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 3 87734 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 86030 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 73494 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 72798 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 63090 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 62059 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 59462 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 10 51636 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 11 48176 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 45735 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 43628 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 43353 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 40482 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 38775 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 38658 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 18 38560 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 19 38028 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 37939 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 625 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 589 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 3 580 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 535 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 470 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 445 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 7 408 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 8 404 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 402 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 10 397 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 11 365 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 349 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 346 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 346 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 343 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 336 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 17 324 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 307 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 19 289 UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0) 20 286 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 360284 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 353919 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 267899 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 260962 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 236885 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 192945 SJUVM (VM/SP 7) 7 191013 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 183813 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 9 181928 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 167726 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 156411 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 156122 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 13 145583 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 143943 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 125868 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 122562 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 17 117595 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 18 116804 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 19 108921 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 106818 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 94941 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 2 88825 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 29276 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 23041 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 20139 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 6 18293 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 12860 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 12475 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 9 11816 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 10871 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 11 10452 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 12 9992 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 9904 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 9843 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 15 9725 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 8740 CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 17 8637 GERMNEWS@LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 8338 LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 8109 HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 7512 CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
