![[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 668078 XB1.BOOKSAMILLION.COM (Linux 2.6.18-238.12.1.el5xen) 2 524928 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 481396 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 393723 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 361513 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.35.1.ELsmp) 6 335365 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 7 295305 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 287578 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 9 283012 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 10 267830 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 11 256304 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 12 240115 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 236486 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 14 217542 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen) 15 208908 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 16 204574 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 17 193208 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.1.10.el5.xs5.5.0.51xen) 18 186228 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 19 185679 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 20 183106 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3375222 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5) 2 2932905 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 1304342 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 4 1288596 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.35.1.ELsmp) 5 1202129 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 6 1136626 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 7 1121607 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 8 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 9 1029324 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 10 1022356 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.29.ELsmp) 11 1021172 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 12 976401 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 13 947907 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 907246 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 15 903156 LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 16 861613 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 857411 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 824260 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen) 19 807276 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.27.54-0.2-default) 20 806737 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.33.1.ELsmp)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 35811 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 31541 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 3 22449 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5) 4 19335 CLEMSON.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 5 11544 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.29.ELsmp) 6 10632 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 7 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 8 9170 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 9 7451 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-238.1.1.el5) 10 6746 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 11 6498 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 12 6428 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 6278 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 14 5871 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen) 15 5823 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 16 5115 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.35.1.ELsmp) 17 4796 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 18 4319 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 4088 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 20 3842 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 519288 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 5.2) 2 468818 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 3 375709 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 4 352257 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.35.1.ELsmp) 5 326346 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2003) 6 293981 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 7 285193 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 8 278961 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 9 262790 LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 10 249980 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-194.11.3.el5) 11 240062 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 232004 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 13 213222 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32.12-0.7-xen) 14 201459 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 15 183593 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5) 16 181821 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 17 180884 BAMA.UA.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 18 178716 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-128.1.10.el5.xs5.5.0.51xen) 19 177051 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 20 174345 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.9)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 224408 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.27.54-0.2-default) 2 86994 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 3 75021 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 72327 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 66550 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 62369 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 7 62071 TEMPLETODAY@LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-20.ELsmp) 8 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 52684 UICNEWS@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp) 10 51079 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.16.54-0.2.12-smp) 11 50931 GLOBAL-LINKS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 12 47343 JAGNEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 13 44949 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 44076 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 15 43795 STUDENT-AT-TENNESSEE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 16 38146 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 17 37230 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 18 36940 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 19 36645 EVENTS-NEWSLETTER-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2) 20 36463 DIVERSITY-NEWS-L@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (Windows Server 2003 R2)