![[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 1366249 PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 645428 TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 3 330135 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 316252 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 5 287702 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 252606 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 226012 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 225663 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 213238 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 199249 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 197243 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 174663 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 13 165317 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 14 160160 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 153616 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 138701 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 17 124573 HEARNNT.NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 122565 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 19 112505 LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2-1H2 + LSMTP V1.1a) 20 111533 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 1356090 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 974827 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 387814 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 335676 LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 5 221225 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 176981 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 112137 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 98366 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 91628 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 10 85536 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 84201 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 12 76449 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 73904 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 14 72140 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 15 71053 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 64544 IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 17 63392 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 60228 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 19 59905 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 55595 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3146 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1156 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 3 1072 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 930 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 898 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 6 852 TC.UMN.EDU (Solaris) 7 800 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 751 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 654 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 633 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 11 558 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 12 531 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 13 490 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 456 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 456 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 16 452 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 450 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 447 ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 439 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 20 431 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 671153 TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 2 484774 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 345346 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 4 339264 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 5 330607 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 287442 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 7 264770 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 251352 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 244032 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 225043 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 217605 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 214794 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 203804 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 185827 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 171833 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 165390 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 146914 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 135453 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 19 125396 UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 121514 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 630838 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 203473 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 76969 DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 45995 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 42330 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 41240 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 39583 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 37456 GAMECENTER-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 36709 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 36047 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 32159 NETGUIDENOW-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 31757 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 31751 WEEKS-WORTH@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 31531 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 15 27999 ANSWERMAN@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 25220 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 24508 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 23043 FUTURESUPERSTOCK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 21635 MS-WINDOWS3X-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 21071 UCSMON@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7)
