![[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 725323 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 561748 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 510827 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 312423 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 304999 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 4.4.40-1-pve) 6 282760 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 269260 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 253439 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 9 250176 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 10 241280 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 11 234961 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 12 228714 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 225106 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 14 216935 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 15 214653 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 16 210973 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 17 207265 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 195695 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-642.6.2.el6.x86_64) 19 194080 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 20 191349 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5003521 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 4180989 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1750871 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1458842 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 5 1370117 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 6 1335262 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 1272926 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 8 1270141 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 1084201 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 11 1054447 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 12 987182 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 13 938600 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 920052 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 15 906875 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 16 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 807642 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 18 789652 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 789246 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 758923 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 30001 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 19203 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14009 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 12295 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 7447 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 8 6845 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6629 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 10 6481 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 5897 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5722 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5472 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 4818 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 4358 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 4008 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 17 3900 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 18 3824 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3699 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 20 3579 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 699392 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 560620 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 505286 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 307036 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 5 279540 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 263082 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 253231 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 8 231143 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 9 219208 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 10 216632 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 11 209188 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 208082 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 207181 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 14 192316 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-642.6.2.el6.x86_64) 15 191907 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 16 191362 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 189490 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 18 167177 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 165376 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 20 157196 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300684 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 62525 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 56151 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 54051 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 5 41640 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 6 38168 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 34922 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 8 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 34085 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 33619 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 11 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 29181 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 15 28814 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 28362 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 17 27715 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 27418 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 26418 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 20 26103 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34)