![[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 918768 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 479542 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 460341 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 394648 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 350626 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 6 346465 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 7 330292 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 314191 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 9 288460 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 10 279279 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 250377 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 12 242989 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 13 237523 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 14 234645 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 15 214224 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5PAE) 16 201960 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 201008 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 18 199163 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 175831 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5xen) 20 170106 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3789648 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 2 3525218 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 1551947 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 1488616 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 5 1377359 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 6 1343276 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 7 1286184 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 8 1212493 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 9 1207079 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 11 991507 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 12 971408 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 13 943052 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 14 915625 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 15 892592 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5) 16 857583 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 17 819720 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 18 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5xen) 19 742400 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 20 730095 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 65769 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 32428 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 24879 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 4 13092 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp) 5 12498 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 6 11036 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 7 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-164.11.1.el5) 8 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 9 8552 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 10 8328 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5) 11 6971 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 12 6428 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 6132 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 14 6097 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 15 5869 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 16 5765 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 17 4837 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 18 4176 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 3812 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 20 3767 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.4.1.el5)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 897823 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 474428 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 448536 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 385414 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 342009 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 6 340601 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5) 7 309584 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 309353 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.16.1.el5) 9 285246 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 10 250593 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 242879 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 12 242385 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 13 236930 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 14 231801 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 15 213654 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5PAE) 16 201548 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 17 200485 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 193809 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 164423 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default) 20 160949 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5xen)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 267510 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 2 110669 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 63155 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 62026 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 60687 GLOBAL-LINKS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b) 10 52803 FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 11 50072 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 36709 WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.93-0.8-default) 16 35997 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 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 35178 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 20 34586 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003)