![[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 864713 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 495698 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 472428 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 297012 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 4.4.98-5-pve) 5 296263 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 6 269508 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 252368 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 237953 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 9 234207 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 10 223554 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 11 220013 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 12 218929 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 13 215306 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 14 202904 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 15 197682 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.x86_64) 16 186950 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 17 186666 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 186284 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 158890 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 20 158842 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5279543 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3670087 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1956080 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1583566 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1410740 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 1345852 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 1332362 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1319003 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 9 1120648 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 11 1029849 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 12 1000125 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 945469 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 14 944029 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 15 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 16 810010 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 802842 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 18 775466 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 764864 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 746530 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26863 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 16806 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14035 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 13216 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 7803 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 8 7297 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6817 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 10 6589 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 6270 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5634 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5478 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 5211 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 4393 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 4358 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 17 4067 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 18 3978 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 19 3859 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 20 3737 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 837186 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 494166 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 467707 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 283587 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 266455 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 247209 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 233398 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 8 223378 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 9 216843 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 199859 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 11 194951 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.x86_64) 12 189519 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 186628 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 14 183997 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 15 181533 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 155914 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 17 153454 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 18 151917 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 150591 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 20 146189 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition + LSMTP V1.1b)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300656 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 62458 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 54050 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (Linux 3.10.0) 4 41752 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 5 39193 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 6 38262 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 35880 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 8 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 33611 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 10 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 28992 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28342 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 15 27710 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 16 27415 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 26419 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 18 24990 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 24093 THEMISVAKGEBIED@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 20 23805 ISMA@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32)