![[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 763415 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 330901 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 319406 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 4.4.59-1-pve) 4 299988 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 294223 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 6 249879 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 247051 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 8 224464 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 9 220404 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 10 217681 LIST.UNM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-696.el6.x86_64) 11 213900 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 12 201862 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 195722 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 14 187503 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 15 178744 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 177728 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 177176 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 18 174044 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 173080 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 159916 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4974360 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3547980 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1809299 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1444339 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 5 1388773 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 6 1331061 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 1258702 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1252858 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 1030149 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 11 988941 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 12 976253 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 13 944185 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 921418 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 15 914342 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 16 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 781910 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 752663 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 19 746487 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 704955 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26707 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 19256 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14016 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 13248 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 6845 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 8 6642 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 6488 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 10 6381 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 11 5936 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5717 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5473 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 4857 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 4359 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 3992 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 17 3921 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 18 3843 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3702 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 20 3574 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 736626 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 325973 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 289505 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 4 287308 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 246945 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 240721 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 7 219254 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 217493 LIST.UNM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-696.el6.x86_64) 9 192510 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 10 187352 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 11 176945 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 12 176754 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 173567 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 173508 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 15 173027 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 16 166781 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 153082 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-696.1.1.el6.x86_64) 18 142122 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 19 141798 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 20 140169 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300682 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 62523 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 56066 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 54051 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 5 41670 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 6 34922 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 7 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 8 34084 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 9 33618 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 10 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 11 29422 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 12 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28802 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 28362 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 16 27714 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 17 27418 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 18 26419 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 19 26161 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 20 26103 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34)