![[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 2541133 PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM (OpenVMS V7.1 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 489707 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 396524 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 368957 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 367022 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 6 359487 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 332739 SEGATE (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 315441 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 308941 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 306290 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 297305 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 290759 LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V7.1 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 263269 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 239958 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 190395 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 16 170959 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 158090 HEARNNT.NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 154217 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 19 152393 NETSPACE.ORG (Linux 2.0.26) 20 148204 MAILHUB.UARK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3455737 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1487460 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 431393 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 310205 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 161929 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 6 143891 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 122769 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 103152 SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM (Solaris 2.4) 9 99370 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 10 98949 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 11 88412 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 79941 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 74280 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 14 73812 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 15 70376 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 67820 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 65787 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 64157 CC1.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 63375 TC.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 20 60720 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 1501 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 2 1207 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 1113 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 4 1000 TC.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 5 887 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 885 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2) 7 865 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 857 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 783 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 10 685 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 11 663 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 12 611 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 563 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 540 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 532 NERVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 531 ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 503 VM.TEMPLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 18 502 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 19 481 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 20 469 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 724152 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 606091 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 432630 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 425812 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5) 5 402520 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 401602 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 7 397517 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 8 393086 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 357392 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 339645 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 337726 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 285032 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 268484 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 227416 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 15 223814 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 16 201665 NETSPACE.ORG (Linux 2.0.26) 17 168570 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 167571 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 19 158625 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 158041 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 795214 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 249494 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 196636 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 186874 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 148139 GAMECENTER-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 105740 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 97626 DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 73777 ANSWERMAN@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 50967 BROWSER-ALERT-PC@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 49030 NETGUIDE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 45770 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 42581 NEWS-DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 31754 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (Solaris 2.5.1) 14 29431 MOMSONLINE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 27766 NETGUIDENOW-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 27606 PSNEWS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 26029 POLOCLUB@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 25650 FIRSTNEWS@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 23788 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH-MAC@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 23334 ABOUTWORKNEWS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a)
