![[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 807175 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 590877 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 471174 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 4 422134 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 323156 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 6 315033 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 309491 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 303831 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 303643 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 301842 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 297495 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 2.6.32-39-pve) 12 292317 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 264986 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 14 257124 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 245819 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 16 240362 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 17 223277 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.16.2.el6.x86_64) 18 219324 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 19 214905 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 200253 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4762945 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3586999 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1646540 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 1587330 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1515251 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 1390506 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 7 1375117 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 1207079 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18) 9 1108243 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 11 1036540 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 12 1021230 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 950773 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 14 902007 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 15 852041 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 16 796256 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 17 772630 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 18 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 19 720847 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 644655 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 56690 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 35279 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 25664 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 4 12996 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 5 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 7 8328 LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18) 8 7236 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 6727 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6662 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 11 6292 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 12 6148 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 13 6095 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 14 6073 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 15 5140 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 16 4241 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 4010 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 18 3898 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3408 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 3336 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 784448 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 585691 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 418509 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 4 307678 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 306836 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 6 301594 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 7 301231 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 8 299250 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 9 285542 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 282185 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 264455 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 12 254955 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 240140 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 14 225483 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 15 222302 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.16.2.el6.x86_64) 16 215770 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 17 214310 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 198567 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 182089 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 180639 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300790 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 299416 NYSTEACHING@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 3 109672 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 80111 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 62714 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 6 40901 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 7 40732 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 33873 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 10 33621 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 11 33588 EDREV@LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 30849 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 13 29711 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 14 28255 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 15 27731 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 16 27700 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 27429 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 26415 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 19 25441 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 20 24988 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Solaris 2.9)