![[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 504382 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 446568 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 392495 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 4 390420 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 5 381337 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 6 363711 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5xen) 7 290754 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 8 281269 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 9 279621 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.323-s390x) 10 279443 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 11 278891 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 12 276745 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 13 241988 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2 + LSMTP V1.1b) 14 238398 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 235438 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 224643 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 17 217574 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 210407 NERDALERT.THENERDS.NET (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5) 19 203226 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 20 200912 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3160934 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 2444225 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-63.ELsmp) 3 1249537 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 4 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 1194450 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 6 1124914 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 7 1087379 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELsmp) 8 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 9 1058100 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 1.0) 10 965465 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 11 943297 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 12 899240 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 13 852717 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5) 14 852430 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 15 844901 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 16 798419 LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 17 784755 LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 18 757881 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.23.ELsmp) 19 755922 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 20 715074 LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 40447 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 27626 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 20443 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.4.21-63.ELsmp) 4 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 11003 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELsmp) 6 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 7 8801 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5) 8 8742 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 9 7075 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-164.6.1.el5) 10 6248 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 11 6127 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 12 5938 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 13 5797 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 5594 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 5556 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 4982 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 17 4586 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 18 4199 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 4036 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 20 3857 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 498495 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 428827 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 383709 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 4 379057 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 5 370713 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 6 287942 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 7 279166 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.323-s390x) 8 276861 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 276693 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 10 271193 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 11 270540 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 12 237869 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 234840 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 14 233789 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2 + LSMTP V1.1b) 15 212734 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 210437 NERDALERT.THENERDS.NET (Linux 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5) 17 200607 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 18 199728 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 19 195933 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 20 194620 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 204073 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.27.48-0.1-default) 2 122702 MARKETPLACE@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 3 87259 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 76562 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 73549 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 66673 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 7 63726 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 8 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 49435 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 10 48911 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 11 44586 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 12 43045 EPLUS@VM1.HQADMIN.DOE.GOV (VM/SP 3.0) 13 40209 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.8) 14 39068 STUDENT-AT-TENNESSEE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 37605 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 16 37272 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 17 36947 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 18 36745 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 19 36563 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 20 36104 JAGNEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2)