![[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 943701 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 561938 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 453161 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 438877 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 391876 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 6 365432 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 7 356072 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 345363 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 9 322162 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 10 302849 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 301404 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5) 12 277361 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 13 264433 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 14 255115 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 251686 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 16 249315 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 230068 LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 18 227685 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 209908 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen) 20 209521 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3781143 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 2 3600505 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 1544924 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 1494032 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 5 1467300 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 6 1348239 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 7 1321461 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 8 1244162 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 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5) 11 979164 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 12 965667 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 13 939264 LISTSERV.KSU.EDU (Solaris 2.9) 14 937185 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 913907 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 16 823225 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 764726 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 18 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen) 19 740392 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 20 733815 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 65797 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 33190 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 24970 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 4 12781 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 5 11135 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 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5) 8 8629 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 7037 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 11 6547 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 12 6404 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 6010 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 14 5945 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 15 5771 LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 16 4850 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 4196 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 3813 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 19 3785 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 20 3065 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32-52-generic)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 920994 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 556647 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 442285 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 4 428930 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 384852 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 6 361132 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 7 352319 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 325698 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 9 302177 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 10 292983 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.1.2.el5) 11 289857 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 12 276695 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64) 13 261776 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 14 251501 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.6.1.el5) 15 248673 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 247557 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 229331 LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU (SunOS 5.9) 18 222251 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 19 208688 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 20 204934 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 269019 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 2 110394 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 63121 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 62026 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 60837 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 36725 WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.101-0.8-default) 16 36033 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 35173 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 20 34586 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003)