![[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 488126 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 2 458688 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows 2000 Server) 3 427406 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 4 417588 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 5 410627 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 6 395227 LISTSERV.FOXNEWS.COM (Windows 2000 Server + LSMTP V1.1b) 7 367708 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.18.el5xen) 8 364909 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 9 291356 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 10 244325 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 11 228738 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 221077 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 13 218515 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 14 218499 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 15 197475 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 16 188468 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 17 186475 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 18 183883 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 19 170780 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 20 169168 LISTSERV.ACOR.ORG (Windows 2000 Server)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 2278242 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-57.ELsmp) 2 2169869 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 1369311 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 4 1278739 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 5 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 6 1156359 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 7 1021924 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 1.0) 8 981775 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 9 967611 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 10 846948 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 11 799514 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 12 789577 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 13 739926 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.8-smp) 14 739481 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 739351 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 16 719003 LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 17 706753 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 18 699215 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 19 664460 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 20 657492 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26097 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 3 18771 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-57.ELsmp) 4 11950 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 5 11230 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 6 10503 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 7 7577 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 8 6992 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 9 6402 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.10.el5) 10 5674 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 11 5600 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 12 5518 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 13 5422 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 5308 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.8-smp) 15 4984 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 16 4769 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 4744 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 4334 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 19 3773 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 20 3392 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.9)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 481461 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 2 443094 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows 2000 Server) 3 412996 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 4 411678 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 5 400172 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 6 355770 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 7 256022 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 8 240791 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 9 230561 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 10 216489 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 11 216048 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 12 213206 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 13 186581 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 14 179116 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 15 178597 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 16 165740 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 17 165518 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 18 164122 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 19 162598 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 20 160761 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 127083 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18.8-0.9-default) 2 122840 POSTMITA@LISTSERV.NIC.IT (Solaris 2.9) 3 79322 ALUMNI@LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 4 78802 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 77093 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 74042 E-ARTACADEMY@LISTSERV.DFN.DE (Solaris 2.9) 7 68508 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 8 64221 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 61758 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 10 52804 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 11 46433 L-LAZINE@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 12 46144 SURFSPOT@NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows Enterprise Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 13 44886 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 14 44223 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 15 42110 VTNETLETTER@LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 16 39466 PRESIDENT@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 17 36863 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 18 36699 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 19 35813 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 20 35492 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)