![[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 1416509 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 338878 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 311467 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 4 222073 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 182572 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 178720 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 7 170081 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 165926 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 164787 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 10 154930 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 144567 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 12 138760 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 137261 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 123123 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 15 119987 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 16 115245 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 99847 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 99082 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 98552 MAILHUB.UARK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 97536 KBS.NET (Linux 1.2.13)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 961360 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 517602 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 3 185643 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 146472 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 97493 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 92553 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 79216 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 75913 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 69397 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 10 68684 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 11 68170 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 66481 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 13 57892 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 14 53602 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 50688 LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 16 49858 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 48413 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 48305 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 48218 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 47384 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3120 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1027 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 3 884 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 667 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 652 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 602 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 545 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 8 481 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 454 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 10 419 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 415 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 12 408 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 13 407 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 398 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 15 394 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 388 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 381 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 18 374 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 19 347 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 334 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 404611 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 359823 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 3 340322 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 309704 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 258036 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 6 225921 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 190252 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 8 189214 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 184761 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 166302 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 11 159065 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 12 156290 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 153874 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 148849 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 148087 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 128794 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 126092 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 18 125661 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 112917 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 111253 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 503717 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 168598 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 69462 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 40450 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 37179 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 6 35820 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 31685 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 29598 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 9 27150 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 24374 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 22092 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 12 21556 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 20663 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 18371 INBUSINESS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 15 18140 NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 16855 WEEKS-WORTH@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 17 15945 PC-GAMES-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 15476 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 15366 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 20 14366 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
