![[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 1587011 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 366327 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 319819 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 245907 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 244280 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 207982 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 202112 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 195866 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 175622 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 10 153550 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 11 140561 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 12 135845 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 129952 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 14 129002 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 124936 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 124199 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 17 121776 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 18 119320 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 19 109126 NDSUVM1 (???) 20 108600 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.0a)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 708515 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 340194 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 3 160217 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 92379 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 92107 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 91178 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 78328 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 68364 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 62274 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 10 60048 ULIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 11 58322 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 56273 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 55312 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 14 55133 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 52041 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 16 51817 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 49778 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 45854 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 45649 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 45422 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 886 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 2 840 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 635 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 563 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 489 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 451 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 7 444 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 400 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 396 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 380 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 378 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 12 354 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 13 354 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 345 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 338 ULIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 16 332 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.1) 17 332 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 18 319 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 315 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 20 312 MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 408876 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 362087 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 358016 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 338740 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 5 279632 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 260986 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 234459 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 8 210878 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 195847 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 177547 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 11 176818 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 171113 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 13 156058 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 14 152688 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 15 145213 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 16 139316 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 135302 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 128282 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 19 123336 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 117353 NDSUVM1 (???)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 435908 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 71029 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 42356 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 41126 MS-WINDOWS95-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 37789 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 32510 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 7 30154 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 27613 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 9 26594 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 25028 AOL-EZONE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 11 23991 MS-WINDOWS95-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 20134 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 19008 NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 16417 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 16024 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 14257 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 14198 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 13665 MAC_ED-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 19 13222 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 20 12844 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
