[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – October 1994


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:

What do these numbers mean exactly?

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).


Top 20 sites by volume delivered (OCT94)

Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 585946 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 2 348542 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 226485 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 146204 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 5 129019 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 6 128111 SUVM (???) 7 127306 UCBCMSA (VM/ESA 2.1) 8 120184 ARIZVM1 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 9 108324 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 97247 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 11 83305 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 74869 DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 13 73676 AUVM (???) 14 66437 SEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 15 65459 UKACRL (VM/ESA 1.1) 16 61337 KSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 57501 UICVM (VM/ESA 2) 18 56053 UA1VM (???) 19 50706 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 45300 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)

Top 20 sites by volume generated (OCT94)

Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 317466 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 223965 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 173564 SUVM (???) 4 148841 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 135576 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 6 123285 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 7 112493 UICVM (VM/ESA 2) 8 112137 AUVM (???) 9 100932 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 10 97801 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 11 96922 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 76609 UA1VM (???) 13 75482 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 14 60312 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 59453 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 16 59265 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 58856 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 18 57205 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 19 56917 VTVM1 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 49641 JHUVM (???)