![[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 859619 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 324030 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 311731 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 4 274790 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 2.6.32-44-pve) 5 250956 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 6 238262 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 234911 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 8 203205 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 9 201778 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 10 199801 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 11 194169 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 12 189095 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 188742 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 14 185472 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 15 183166 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 177428 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 17 177184 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 18 174786 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 19 168534 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 155737 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4865849 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3394188 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1739749 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1662814 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1402364 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 1360135 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 7 1203878 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1175110 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 9 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 977694 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 11 966718 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 12 940893 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 13 924750 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 14 919127 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 15 895066 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 16 809194 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 719481 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 709163 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 687654 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 618209 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26272 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 14789 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 13989 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 13152 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 7143 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 6845 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6794 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6425 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 11 6207 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 12 5664 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 5481 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 14 4243 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 4000 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 16 3862 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 3661 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 18 3520 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3417 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32) 20 3401 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 835169 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 318913 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 250268 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 4 233074 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 231046 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 6 198491 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 7 197907 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 196047 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 9 187000 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 181310 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 11 178851 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 174633 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 13 174304 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 14 162144 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 15 152249 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 16 144369 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 137138 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition + LSMTP V1.1b) 18 127723 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 19 121933 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 20 116348 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300969 NYSTEACHING@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 2 300734 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 3 77087 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 62645 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 54051 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 6 41301 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 7 37699 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 34949 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 9 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 10 34087 FLASH-GRANDECAMPAGNE@LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 11 33622 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 12 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 15 28900 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 16 28576 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 28277 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 18 27723 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 27424 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 20 26415 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101)