![[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 1680156 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 385820 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 295433 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 267429 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 252346 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 250467 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 7 234864 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 215281 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 200094 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 187739 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 11 157864 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 151440 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 13 149189 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 148250 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 147443 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 16 134493 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 132103 LSV-NT.TAMU.EDU (???) 18 127638 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 19 115593 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3) 20 115406 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.0a)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 643592 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 271111 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 3 260817 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 94101 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 91895 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 78039 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 77194 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 68871 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 68481 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 60918 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 11 60391 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 55916 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 55058 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 14 54472 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 51224 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 16 49210 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 47289 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 46251 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 19 44723 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 44716 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 2091 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 856 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 3 820 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 629 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 588 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 6 543 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 516 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 491 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 433 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 411 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 11 400 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 390 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 13 380 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 14 375 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 358 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 16 352 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 347 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 333 UMINN1 (VM/HPO 5.0) 19 326 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 326 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 439824 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 412559 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 341340 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 313843 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 5 273335 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 268246 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 256727 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 8 232325 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 218602 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 215794 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 11 210838 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 12 200859 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 183182 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 175923 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 15 173132 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 16 156330 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 17 155439 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 141683 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 129025 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 121768 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 409477 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 109983 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 65293 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 42613 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 37341 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 36711 MS-WINDOWS95-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 31087 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 27275 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 26995 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 10 23725 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 22153 AOL-EZONE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 12 19857 MS-WINDOWS95-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 19097 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 18077 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 15197 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 13599 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 13497 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 13413 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 19 12840 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 20 12481 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
