![[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 1043625 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 241434 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 217380 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 200566 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 193735 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 182897 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 152202 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 151113 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 9 150644 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 147388 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 11 102232 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 12 101621 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 13 99507 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 98935 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 98296 DEARN (VM/SP 7) 16 94859 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 91002 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 85707 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 19 83993 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 81782 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 186484 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 108806 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 3 95177 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 4 87754 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 84748 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 74138 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 73664 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 63154 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 53316 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 51446 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 11 48463 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 45678 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 43672 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 43389 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 42176 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 16 41908 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 39279 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 18 39100 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 39080 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 20 39055 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 661 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 606 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 3 591 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 548 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 482 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 451 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 7 449 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 8 418 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 408 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 10 402 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 11 372 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 360 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 355 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 14 353 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 340 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 16 337 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 327 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 321 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 19 298 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 286 MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 307680 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 287381 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 262499 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 220949 SJUVM (???) 5 214321 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 199553 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 7 196004 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 165877 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 165525 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 165149 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 154266 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 130679 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 126534 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 14 124898 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 15 123150 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 115347 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 17 106896 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 106222 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 19 103308 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 20 101667 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 110101 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 96774 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 3 50355 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 30441 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 22421 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 6 18324 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 13053 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 12571 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 9 11956 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 10603 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 11 10594 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 12 10529 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 10224 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 9999 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 9519 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 16 8444 GERMNEWS@LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 8405 CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 18 8362 LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 8016 HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 7340 LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
