![[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 572986 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-194.32.1.el5xen) 2 496413 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 454897 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 4 447344 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 427744 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 6 425914 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 7 312835 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 8 294641 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 9 287320 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 10 284663 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 11 283132 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 12 261798 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 13 246561 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.325-s390x) 14 241909 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 218283 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 217235 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 17 214876 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2 + LSMTP V1.1b) 18 206547 APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition) 19 194366 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 20 190927 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 2816076 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5) 2 2521153 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 1331526 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 4 1208596 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 5 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 6 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 7 1046689 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 1024024 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELsmp) 9 1019039 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 10 1010386 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 11 962685 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5) 12 941124 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 13 921954 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 1.0) 14 876072 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 845773 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 16 840160 LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 17 825059 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 779587 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 19 750769 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 20 748912 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.1.10.el5.xs5.5.0.51xen)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 32682 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 27576 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 21252 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5) 4 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 11912 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 9530 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 8 8921 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-194.17.4.el5) 9 7242 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-164.6.1.el5) 10 6307 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 11 6271 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 12 6057 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 13 6053 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 5713 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 5490 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 5142 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 17 4667 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 18 4199 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 4063 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 20 3936 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 490168 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 441794 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem) 3 426608 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 4 417395 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 5 414288 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.28.ELsmp) 6 309817 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 7 282908 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 8 281403 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 274365 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 10 263301 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 11 255678 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 12 245990 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Linux (S/390) 2.6.5-7.325-s390x) 13 241539 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 214456 HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows Server 2003) 15 213479 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 205480 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2 + LSMTP V1.1b) 17 190804 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-78.0.1.ELsmp) 18 190539 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 19 187945 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-194.17.1.el5) 20 185334 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 212719 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.27.48-0.1-default) 2 86994 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 3 76478 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 72327 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 66539 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 63775 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 7 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 8 48723 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 9 44716 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 10 43168 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 11 43044 EPLUS@VM1.HQADMIN.DOE.GOV (VM/SP 3.0) 12 41704 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 40041 JAGNEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 14 37725 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 15 36947 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 16 36698 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 17 36514 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 18 35731 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 19 35214 STUDENT-AT-TENNESSEE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 20 34802 FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)