![[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 612980 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.18.el5xen) 2 455446 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 426553 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 422595 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 5 392249 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 6 373130 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 7 312747 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.319-s390x) 8 279002 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 261146 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 10 260285 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 11 260277 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 258011 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 13 250294 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5) 14 232549 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 15 217006 NERDALERT.THENERDS.NET (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5) 16 215658 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 17 212756 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 18 205984 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 19 193051 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 20 192764 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 2698983 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 2676364 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-63.ELsmp) 3 1251015 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 4 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 1178982 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5) 6 1106976 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 1.0) 7 1101925 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 8 956050 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELsmp) 9 935016 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 10 930412 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 11 887126 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 12 849609 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 13 823530 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 14 805314 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 791474 LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 16 748104 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 17 723423 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 720986 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 19 719475 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 20 692161 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-40.EL)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 30294 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 26198 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 22019 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-63.ELsmp) 4 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 10851 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELsmp) 6 8698 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.22.18-grsec2.1.11-vs2.2.0.6) 7 8639 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 8 7597 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5) 9 6969 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-164.6.1.el5) 10 5946 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 11 5729 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 12 5571 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 13 5519 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 5383 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 5350 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 5323 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 17 4490 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 4483 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 19 3974 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 20 3690 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 448987 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 411362 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 3 410279 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 4 380379 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 5 360694 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 6 312234 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.319-s390x) 7 276535 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 259868 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 9 257511 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 10 257108 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 11 247969 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.2.1.el5) 12 227265 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 13 226490 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 14 217014 NERDALERT.THENERDS.NET (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5) 15 210557 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 202340 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.16.ELsmp) 17 192758 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 18 190269 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 19 186177 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 20 178274 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 198031 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18.8-0.9-default) 2 86464 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 3 77161 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 72790 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 67274 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 64519 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 7 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 8 46857 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 9 45034 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 10 43045 EPLUS@VM1.HQADMIN.DOE.GOV (VM/SP 3.0) 11 42917 L-LAZINE@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 12 37521 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.8) 13 37204 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 14 36949 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 15 36768 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 16 36594 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 17 34583 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 18 34477 MEDPROS-L@DTIC.MIL (Solaris 2.10) 19 34311 STUDENT-AT-TENNESSEE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 20 33735 FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)