![[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 930354 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 573719 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 396219 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 4 374423 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 335208 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 6 331366 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 315720 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 296114 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 9 289948 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 10 267118 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 262992 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 12 246390 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 237080 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 14 236735 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 2.6.32-44-pve) 15 233582 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 16 233103 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 17 226878 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 18 220851 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 220745 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 214563 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4816206 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3609532 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1673185 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1652554 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 5 1600706 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 6 1472859 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 7 1327225 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 8 1166581 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 1025956 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 11 1023681 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 12 957799 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 13 946840 HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 904351 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 15 897211 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 16 878617 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 17 830778 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 18 755881 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 751295 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 20 714461 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 56770 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 2 33785 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 26228 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 4 12767 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 6941 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 6737 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6640 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6351 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 11 6174 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 12 5975 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 5193 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 14 4307 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 4017 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 16 3873 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 3496 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 18 3404 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 19 3377 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32) 20 3339 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 905233 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 568573 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 394444 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 4 371453 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 323629 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 6 315040 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 7 312163 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 292163 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 9 266504 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 10 253952 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 11 250114 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 12 240234 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 236556 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 14 233360 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 15 226712 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 16 218738 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 215221 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 212771 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 205613 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 20 205415 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-573.3.1.el6.x86_64)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300749 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 299824 NYSTEACHING@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 3 109574 COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 77316 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 62675 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 6 54701 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 7 41207 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 41132 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 9 34958 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 10 34588 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 33621 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 12 33588 EDREV@LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 13 30849 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 14 30705 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 15 28278 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 16 28050 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 27725 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 27427 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 26414 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 20 26121 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34)