![[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 1440520 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 314336 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 303171 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 4 212318 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 181446 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 181422 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 7 170954 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 168756 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 147500 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 10 143212 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 143064 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 12 125677 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 13 125116 MAILER.SYR.EDU (NT 3.51 (Intel) + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 120161 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 15 119625 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 118528 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 117962 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 114501 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 19 107222 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 20 104402 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 896650 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 450661 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 3 177424 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 97575 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 93614 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 82644 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 78193 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 67849 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 66417 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 10 64884 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 11 56176 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 54791 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 13 51955 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 50749 LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 15 49464 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 47630 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 17 47415 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 47379 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 46279 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 45692 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 936 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 2 864 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 796 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 650 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 582 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 488 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 7 467 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 410 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 9 408 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 10 403 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 11 398 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 12 392 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 13 383 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 381 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 366 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 365 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 17 363 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 360 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 19 354 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 20 351 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 361627 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 337778 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 335743 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 330674 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 5 308972 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 6 215859 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 194883 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 184356 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 158060 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 157098 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 149371 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 12 146485 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 144285 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 141027 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 135641 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 16 126632 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 126070 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 122065 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 19 120185 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 109818 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 465570 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 105234 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 72842 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 47601 MS-WINDOWS95-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 41294 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 38640 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 36540 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 8 33806 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 30480 MS-WINDOWS95-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 29922 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 28706 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 12 22921 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 19809 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 14 19770 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 19022 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 18256 NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 15370 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 14684 INBUSINESS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 19 14541 WEEKS-WORTH@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 20 14222 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
