![[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 821066 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 385196 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 364827 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 318377 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 5 295277 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 6 251215 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 7 251038 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 8 250248 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 243514 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 10 234878 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 11 229053 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 12 223238 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 218533 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 14 210117 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.18.1.el5) 15 202199 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.8.1.el5PAE) 16 194735 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 193642 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 18 180412 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 19 176483 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 20 169287 LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 3913211 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3659512 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 3 1553452 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 1538590 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 5 1494592 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 6 1346051 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp) 7 1328099 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 8 1244716 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 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 11 972459 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 12 925610 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 892907 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 14 891201 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 15 836156 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 16 795668 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5) 17 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen) 18 743180 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default) 19 721956 LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 20 705745 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 66448 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 24881 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5) 3 18114 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 12766 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp) 5 11251 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 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 8 8645 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 7103 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64) 11 6544 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 12 6336 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 6062 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 14 5825 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003) 15 5637 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 16 4828 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 17 4228 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 3842 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5) 19 3831 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 20 3128 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32-52-generic)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 798759 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 380326 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 356459 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 314170 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 5 294615 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 6 246703 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 7 245220 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem) 8 240873 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default) 9 229128 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 10 226751 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 217608 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 12 209930 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.18.1.el5) 13 202426 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.8.1.el5PAE) 14 191276 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 15 188877 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9) 16 188277 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5) 17 174740 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 168648 LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.x86_64) 19 160191 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 20 159306 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 277339 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 2 110664 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 63090 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 62026 PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 9 59841 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 47748 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 36700 WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.101-0.15-default) 16 35744 FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10) 17 35145 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default) 18 34586 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 19 33626 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 20 33588 EDREV@LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen)