![[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 466175 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 2 445608 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 3 443625 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 4 435891 MAESTRO3.AZCENTRAL.COM (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.13.ELsmp + LSMTP V1.1b) 5 420453 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 6 390611 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.18.el5xen) 7 369903 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 8 264097 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 9 257703 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 10 251418 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 11 250033 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 247932 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 13 240208 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 14 239386 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 15 220880 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 16 218003 LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Solaris 2.9) 17 217245 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 18 212698 LISTSERV.FOXNEWS.COM (Windows 2000 Server + LSMTP V1.1b) 19 210118 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 20 209972 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.315-s390x)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 2668947 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-57.ELsmp) 2 2417491 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 1380721 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 4 1308671 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 5 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 6 1147517 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 7 1037292 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 1.0) 8 1023823 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 9 999456 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 10 871317 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 11 823555 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 12 821006 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 13 798830 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 14 751749 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 748714 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 16 738883 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.8-smp) 17 712476 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 704117 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.13.ELsmp) 19 668327 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-40.EL) 20 632674 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26906 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 22199 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-57.ELsmp) 3 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 4 11334 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 5 10774 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 6 9850 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 7 7841 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 8 7140 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 9 6527 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-128.1.1.el5) 10 5555 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 11 5359 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.8-smp) 12 5247 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 13 5123 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 14 4915 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 4861 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 16 4748 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 4600 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 4369 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 19 3815 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 20 3432 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 446695 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 2 436436 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.5.ELsmp) 3 428449 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 4 415603 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 5 359812 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 6 254121 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 7 249012 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 247379 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 9 240884 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 10 237086 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 11 230131 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 12 227502 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 13 223509 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 216662 LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Solaris 2.9) 15 210959 LISTS.UFL.EDU (AIX 5.3) 16 209390 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.315-s390x) 17 188575 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 18 186967 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 19 182484 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 20 180683 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9)
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 80355 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 79902 ALUMNI@LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 5 77506 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 74042 E-ARTACADEMY@LISTSERV.DFN.DE (Solaris 2.9) 7 69371 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 8 64798 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 62835 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 10 52804 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 11 46422 L-LAZINE@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 12 46143 SURFSPOT@NIC.SURFNET.NL (Windows Enterprise Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 13 45699 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 14 44743 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 15 42109 VTNETLETTER@LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-55.0.2.ELsmp) 16 38356 L-PSU-TRAVEL-PROGRAM@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 17 37380 PRESIDENT@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 18 36855 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 19 36690 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 20 36148 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)