![[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 1431368 PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM (OpenVMS V6.2-1H2 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 387429 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 3 337609 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 277253 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 269162 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 253188 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 246914 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 242737 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 212530 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 192251 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 181334 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 12 177575 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 164848 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 144339 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 139106 MAILHUB.UARK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 138632 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 17 136963 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 18 136068 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 132954 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 131741 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 1257213 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 808476 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 335464 LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 4 267664 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 233611 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 200685 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 113335 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 97863 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 91634 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 10 83863 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 81729 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 12 75348 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 74229 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 14 73172 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 15 70501 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 16 65477 IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 17 63909 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 59052 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 19 58742 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 20 55198 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3138 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1225 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 3 1069 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 897 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 879 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 6 777 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 745 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 619 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 9 613 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 553 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 476 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 460 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 13 455 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 14 449 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 15 445 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 16 440 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 17 436 ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 434 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 19 430 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 414 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 478927 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 379924 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 353059 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 4 342189 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 5 279028 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 277594 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 272361 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 8 259064 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 246456 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 232995 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 226043 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 194165 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 13 193835 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 179522 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 165846 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 154996 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 152799 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 152524 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 151660 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 20 149029 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 599052 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 199962 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 59640 DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 40172 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 39974 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 39743 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 38177 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 36000 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 31745 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 31481 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 11 30819 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 27124 WEEKS-WORTH@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 24481 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 23529 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 22703 NETGUIDENOW-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 22566 GAMECENTER-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 21624 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 21111 UCSMON@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 19 20719 DOS-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 20323 FUTURESUPERSTOCK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a)
