![[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 1211974 LISTS.PSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 809218 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 3 394325 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 3.10.0) 4 343419 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 280992 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 3.10.0-1160.49.1.el7.x86_64) 6 248252 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 7 238749 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 230159 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 3.10.0-1160.53.1.el7.x86_64) 9 225972 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 10 219605 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 11 198886 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 12 198455 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 190296 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 14 180076 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 15 174783 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64) 16 170716 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 17 152832 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 18 143625 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 19 134601 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 20 126711 LISTSERV.TDBANK.CA (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5108753 LISTS.PSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 4645058 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 3 1789840 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 1777535 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 5 1650526 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 6 1235674 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 7 1166625 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 4.12.14) 8 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 1043726 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 1039441 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 11 975807 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 12 927432 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 13 867828 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 14 862518 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 15 853488 LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 847431 LISTSERV.ECU.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Standard x64 Edition) 17 837317 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Standard x64 Edition) 18 826152 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 19 696897 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 3.10.0) 20 686600 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Linux 3.10.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 28045 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 2 16542 LISTS.PSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 3 14174 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 4 9788 LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 5 9599 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 6 8079 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 7 7152 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 3.10.0) 8 6763 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Standard x64 Edition) 9 6222 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 10 5197 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 11 4988 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 12 4816 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 13 4430 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 14 4273 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 15 3834 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 16 3789 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 17 3448 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 18 3418 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3292 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 20 2782 LISTSERV.KENT.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 1208421 LISTS.PSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 776152 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 3 386064 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 3.10.0) 4 342947 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 280771 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 3.10.0-1160.49.1.el7.x86_64) 6 248081 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 7 235030 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 228313 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 3.10.0-1160.53.1.el7.x86_64) 9 198209 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 196163 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 186346 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 12 179860 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64) 13 172410 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 3.10.0-1062.9.1.el7.x86_64) 14 171989 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Standard x64 Edition) 15 167815 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 16 152691 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 17 139610 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 18 132479 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 19 121449 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 4.12.14) 20 109819 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 54050 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (Linux 3.10.0) 2 41949 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2019 Datacenter x64 Edition) 3 41819 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (Linux 4.12.14) 4 39345 SUCCESS@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 6 33127 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 7 31621 TAU-STU-ACADEMICSEC-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 8 30218 UG2021FALL@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 9 28887 TAU-INNOVTL-ALL-STUDENTS@LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 10 28275 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 11 27706 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Standard x64 Edition) 12 27677 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 27479 TAU4U@LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 14 27377 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 15 27348 UTENNSRP@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 16 26421 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 17 24992 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 18 24633 ECF-MIWD@NYED.USCOURTS.GOV (Linux 3.10.0) 19 24288 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 22770 STUDENT-TRAVEL-SURVEY-L@LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows Server 2012 Datacenter x64 Edition)