![[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 2323829 PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 468948 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 450025 PSUVM.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 438172 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 5 333513 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 333192 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 313201 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 308868 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 289804 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 263187 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 249650 LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2-1H2 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 243531 SEGATE (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 226891 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 215176 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 15 212772 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 16 204765 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 182492 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 18 182424 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 182250 HEARNNT.NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 20 172804 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 1612469 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1155447 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 406934 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 245731 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 244164 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 122377 PSUVM.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 98235 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 8 97046 ACM.ORG (AIX 4.2) 9 96619 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 92158 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 89522 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 76791 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 13 76730 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 74936 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 15 73864 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 70568 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 68152 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 18 67245 IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (VM/SP 7) 19 65959 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2) 20 65475 SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM (Solaris 2.4)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3151 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1347 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 3 1260 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 4 1139 PSUVM.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 952 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2) 6 903 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 877 TC.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 8 808 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 751 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 723 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 11 614 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 12 611 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 13 583 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 523 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 507 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 500 TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 500 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51) 18 494 ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 465 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 20 459 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 633479 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 506382 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 3 477282 PSUVM.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 420757 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 5 372645 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 366946 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 351106 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 340938 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 337337 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 324210 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 289325 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 269671 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 260568 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 14 254506 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 235826 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 223745 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 214092 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 188159 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 19 178097 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 176849 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 705366 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 210144 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 92047 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 91292 DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 72272 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 70861 GAMECENTER-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 52921 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 51884 ANSWERMAN@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 43533 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 39924 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 36176 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 33007 NEWS-DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 31786 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 31537 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 15 30948 NETGUIDENOW-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 30220 NETGUIDE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 27914 FUTURESUPERSTOCK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 27594 NETGIR-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 19 24589 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 22616 MOMSONLINE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a)
