![[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 883397 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 545264 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 423963 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 306791 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 281590 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 6 274590 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 7 243912 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 8 233149 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 231480 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 227940 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 218297 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 12 217604 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 213523 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 14 204251 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 15 171116 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 16 169276 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.11.1.el6.x86_64) 17 164414 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 18 163578 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 19 157727 LIST.UNM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.11.1.el6.x86_64) 20 157497 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5058281 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3785459 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 3 2179436 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1424795 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 5 1396951 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 1375212 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 1298766 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1282581 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 9 1119492 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 982099 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 944029 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 13 840018 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 14 829918 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 15 820998 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 815048 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 18 810979 LISTSERV.ECU.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 803737 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 20 758967 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 27338 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 2 16943 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14284 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 13567 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 5 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 8079 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 8 7622 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 7001 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6673 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 5758 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5467 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5097 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 14 4518 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 15 4432 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 4372 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 17 3988 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 18 3978 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3922 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 3747 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 853657 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 543927 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 419104 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 294099 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 281379 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 6 274355 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 7 228462 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 227788 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 226049 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 213356 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 11 203707 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 12 176514 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 168372 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 14 167841 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.11.1.el6.x86_64) 15 162784 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 160639 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 17 157471 LIST.UNM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.11.1.el6.x86_64) 18 157148 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 19 154657 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 150500 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300656 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 62355 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 61790 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 54050 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (Linux 3.10.0) 5 44654 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 41763 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (Linux 4.4.162) 7 36553 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 8 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 33601 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 10 30835 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 29489 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 28316 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 15 27709 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 16 27400 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 27079 HINDU-D@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 26418 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 19 24991 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 20 24790 ISMA@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32)