![[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 644410 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 391101 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 369220 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 340841 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 5 274976 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 6 265900 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 7 232684 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 8 225169 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 9 224829 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 10 223512 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 11 202172 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 12 166342 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 13 162994 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 155246 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 15 148871 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 16 148181 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5PAE) 17 148174 AOPAMAILER.AOPA2.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 18 145970 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 19 139977 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 20 139745 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4103564 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 2 3681978 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 1450037 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 4 1430596 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 5 1375631 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 6 1342210 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 7 1274550 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 1182052 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 11 992044 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 12 976385 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 13 974187 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 14 953702 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 896367 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 16 808780 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 755941 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 18 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5xen) 19 732041 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 20 727099 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 53325 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 34220 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 31220 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 4 12301 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 5 10754 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 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 8 8462 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 6954 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 11 6463 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 6345 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 13 6245 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 14 5862 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 15 5752 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 16 4837 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 4166 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 3796 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 19 3755 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 20 3049 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32-52-generic)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 626485 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 386585 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 360065 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 331054 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 5 270648 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 6 265064 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 7 225167 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 8 222075 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 219326 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 10 210504 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 177224 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 12 163424 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 13 161661 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 154679 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 15 147670 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5PAE) 16 144819 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 144187 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 18 137534 LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.93-0.8-default) 19 137264 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 20 132282 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 265703 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 2 110862 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 63176 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 62026 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 60700 GLOBAL-LINKS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 10 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 11 50073 FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 47833 ESCRIU-ME@LISTSERV.UV.ES (Linux 2.6.32-5-xen-686) 13 44053 JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 14 37250 CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 15 36893 SKILLPORT-UHMAIN-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 16 36659 WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.93-0.8-default) 17 35744 FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 18 35229 ECF-EDNY@NYED.USCOURTS.GOV (Linux 2.6.32-358.14.1.el6.x86_64) 19 35195 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 20 34586 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003)