![[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 2544352 PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COM (OpenVMS V7.1 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 543325 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 454913 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 447445 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 385514 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 382630 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 7 372168 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 360221 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 352453 SEGATE (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 344923 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 310701 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 285664 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 284755 LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V7.1 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 280748 MAILER.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 248745 LSV.UNTPDC.ORG (IRIX 6.2 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 244288 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 238687 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 212673 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 19 179682 HEARNNT.NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 20 177880 UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0 + LSMTP V1.1a)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4248910 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 1792249 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 984654 ANNOUNCE.MICROSOFT.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 4 562983 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 475097 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 300942 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 7 161040 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 144919 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 133906 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 125221 SERVICES.WEB.AOL.COM (Solaris 2.4) 11 121018 ISBLISTS.ZDNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 12 117015 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 13 108924 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 108910 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2) 15 108146 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 16 89727 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 17 89144 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 86031 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 19 84063 PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 80776 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 3529 LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 1844 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.2) 3 1616 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 4 1401 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 1346 LISTS.AIESEC.ORG (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 6 1303 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 4.2) 7 1193 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 8 1120 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 9 946 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 945 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 912 TC.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 12 758 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (AIX 4.2) 13 727 UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 708 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 661 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 646 VM.TEMPLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 17 630 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 18 601 LIST.NIH.GOV (Solaris 2.4) 19 597 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 4.1.5) 20 592 ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 785768 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 2 693840 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 + LSMTP V1.1a) 3 541934 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 475723 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 5 462010 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 454982 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.5.1) 7 442282 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 8 442184 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2.0) 9 432348 LISTSERV.MSN.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 10 377814 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 11 352766 LISTS.PSU.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 318107 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 13 277956 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 14 273077 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 15 267834 LSV.UNTPDC.ORG (IRIX 6.2 + LSMTP V1.1a) 16 253152 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 17 163472 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.2.0) 18 158863 NETSPACE.ORG (Linux 2.0.26) 19 154935 UGA.CC.UGA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.1.0 + LSMTP V1.1a) 20 154748 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2.0)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 867109 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 318993 SHAREWARE-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 284933 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 232451 EOL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 227467 GAMECENTER-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 159566 NEWS-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 7 111396 DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 105565 BROWSER-ALERT-PC@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 9 75008 ANSWERMAN@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 10 62836 NETGUIDE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 52569 NEWS-DISPATCH-HTML@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 47872 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 13 45061 POLOCLUB@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 14 44222 ACTIVEX-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 42779 ABOUTWORKNEWS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 38188 MEDIADOME-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 17 38155 MOMSONLINE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 36561 FIRSTNEWS@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.1a) 19 36170 DOWNLOAD-DISPATCH-MAC@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 31754 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (Solaris 2.5.1)
