![[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 1533466 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 373100 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 3 359816 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 251838 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 240865 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 214800 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 208186 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 194065 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 186040 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 184521 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 172076 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 155283 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 13 152751 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 14 151831 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 139295 MAILHUB.UARK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 135385 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 130378 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 18 120894 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 19 120186 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 20 116725 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5 + LSMTP V1.1a)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 1027205 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 590688 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 334982 LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 4 191976 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 178712 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 100492 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 97854 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 81025 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 77086 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 10 72886 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 11 72519 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 70083 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 67729 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 14 63158 IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 15 57599 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 56144 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (NT 4.0 (Intel) + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 52052 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 51534 SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM (Solaris 2.4) 19 50036 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 49653 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3131 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1112 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 3 948 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 763 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 728 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 707 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 575 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 8 510 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 9 501 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 430 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 11 430 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 426 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 421 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 14 409 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 15 409 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 16 398 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 17 394 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 380 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 361 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 20 357 KSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 391840 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 380507 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 3 359161 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 357293 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 336799 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 6 252773 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 247258 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 219770 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 196327 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 195410 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 193317 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 188156 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 169012 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 14 164382 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 154255 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 150795 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 148081 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 147906 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 19 131048 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 20 125720 IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 531532 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 181768 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 69518 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 40301 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 37651 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 35877 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 32526 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 31705 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 30327 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 10 24407 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 23513 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 21580 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 21002 INBUSINESS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 20946 UCSMON@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 15 20679 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 20514 WEEKS-WORTH@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 18641 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 17865 NEW-LIST@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 17370 CYBERSPACE-LAW@PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (NT 4.0 (Intel) + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 16930 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a)
