![[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 1359054 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 342453 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 301073 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 4 274581 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 238481 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 216220 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 214831 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 184838 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 174878 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 167035 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 11 130243 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 125402 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 13 119846 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 118507 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 15 114159 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 16 107354 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 103128 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 18 99414 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 19 97460 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 97218 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 286151 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 219859 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 137604 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 4 106771 LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 5 91244 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 85862 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 77372 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 75395 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 66760 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 59172 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 52730 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 12 50697 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 47200 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 14 46766 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 15 46681 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 45758 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 45734 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 41481 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 19 41031 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 40195 UMINN1 (VM/HPO 5.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 696 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 673 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 3 614 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 555 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 491 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 481 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 410 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 8 408 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 9 377 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 366 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 366 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 12 364 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 350 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 349 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 15 347 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 16 343 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1) 17 333 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 18 331 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 19 307 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 298 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 371235 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 367554 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 320195 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 298419 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 281928 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 260765 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 7 201707 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 188387 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 9 188069 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 184985 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 180291 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 177659 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 13 156955 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 141426 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 15 136455 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 16 135898 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 135447 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 18 130053 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 125894 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 20 108765 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 284049 DISPATCH@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 110084 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 98390 TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4) 4 46703 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 32720 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 32198 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 25829 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 8 24637 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 9 18705 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 13908 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 12773 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 12 12246 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 11196 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 10984 INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1) 15 10864 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 10830 ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0) 17 10199 NET-HAPPENINGS@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 18 10122 PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 9519 MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 9181 HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
