![[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 1581125 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 474482 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 338167 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 4 297137 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 256578 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 239947 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 225194 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 224707 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 199340 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 194473 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 11 171443 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 155173 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 13 151438 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 14 143409 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 140330 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 134874 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 17 133325 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 129742 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 19 118115 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 117022 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 548025 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 235691 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 197210 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 4 94266 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 86439 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 83262 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 78478 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 69096 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 60044 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 53907 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 11 53444 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 51534 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 13 49685 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 14 48064 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 47653 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 46425 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 44042 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 18 42520 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 41424 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 41097 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 757 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 2 748 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 638 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 556 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 522 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 6 507 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 500 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 408 CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 9 402 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 399 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 11 378 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 376 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 13 374 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 362 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 15 357 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 354 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 342 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 320 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 318 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 296 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 502338 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 416084 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 333499 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 4 305022 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 296665 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 259596 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 7 242290 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 224636 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 220013 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 218284 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 11 215502 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 199318 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 196209 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 186524 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 15 165959 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 16 154748 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 17 142652 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 139850 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 138517 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 137282 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 339262 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 110081 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 47360 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 44826 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 34555 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 27327 MS-WINDOWS95-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 27136 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 25894 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 9 21754 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 21023 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 20454 PC-GAMES-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 19377 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 17301 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 14546 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 13006 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 16 12665 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 12521 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 11959 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 19 11461 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 11363 AOL-EZONE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
