![[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 881885 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 576572 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 533231 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 350455 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 5 349734 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 6 344434 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 7 321792 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 298344 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 9 292882 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 10 287169 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 11 286016 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.58-0.6.2-default) 12 280174 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 13 264455 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 14 263103 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 247772 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 16 240213 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 206802 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 18 193597 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5xen) 19 190394 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 20 189088 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3651403 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 2 3632974 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 1470088 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 4 1373573 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 5 1359058 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 6 1342029 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 7 1271274 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 8 1207079 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 9 1162771 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 11 1037345 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.58-0.6.2-default) 12 961617 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 957531 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 14 954986 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 15 893151 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 16 812081 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 752489 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 18 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5xen) 19 748502 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 20 734305 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.26-0.7-default)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 53309 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 33839 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 24720 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 4 11739 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 5 10655 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 6 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-164.11.1.el5) 7 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 8 8352 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 9 8328 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 10 6920 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 11 6799 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 12 6516 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 6489 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.58-0.6.2-default) 14 5768 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 15 5726 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 16 4789 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 4146 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 3785 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 19 3734 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 20 3037 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32-44-generic)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 860180 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 571620 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 518767 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 346405 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 5 337905 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 6 331042 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 7 318550 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 292946 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 9 292095 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 10 283258 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.58-0.6.2-default) 11 278106 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 12 263730 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 13 255964 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 14 248687 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 15 248600 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 16 238897 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 203551 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 18 188864 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 19 184558 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 20 184273 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 262530 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 2 111276 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 3 86994 EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 4 74965 RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 5 72327 ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 6 66551 HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 7 63188 GLOBAL-LINKS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 8 62026 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 10 50072 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 11 48164 ESCRIU-ME@LISTSERV.UV.ES (Linux 2.6.32-5-xen-686) 12 46921 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 44053 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 14 38504 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 15 37250 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 16 36893 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 17 36490 WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.80-0.7-default) 18 35744 FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 19 35229 ECF-EDNY@NYED.USCOURTS.GOV (Linux 2.6.32-358.14.1.el6.x86_64) 20 35208 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default)