[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – June 2014


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).

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 daily (JUN14, 1-29)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     837290  JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
  2     337451  LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
  3     306617  LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
  4     296993  LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1)
  5     238760  LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
  6     225120  H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem)
  7     219305  NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition)
  8     205772  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default)
  9     194542  LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
 10     190062  DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.18.1.el5)
 11     188499  LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
 12     187849  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
 13     184284  LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
 14     166859  AOPAMAILER.AOPA2.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
 15     161304  LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
 16     152398  PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.9.1.el5PAE)
 17     149134  LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64)
 18     147646  LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9)
 19     146667  LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen)
 20     130744  LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)

Top 20 sites by number of subscribers (29 Jun 2014)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1     3981900  LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1)
  2     3655830  LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5)
  3     1551122  LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
  4     1463843  LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5)
  5     1449626  LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
  6     1343915  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp)
  7     1341553  HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64)
  8     1252426  LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp)
  9     1207079  LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5)
 10     1059036  LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
 11      971548  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default)
 12      924802  LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
 13      879839  LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default)
 14      879673  LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5)
 15      838636  CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0)
 16      777453  LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5)
 17      751295  LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen)
 18      737358  LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default)
 19      721956  LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
 20      706411  LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003)

Top 20 sites by number of lists (29 Jun 2014)

Pos Lists  Site
--- -----  ----
  1 66478  LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
  2 24924  LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18-348.1.1.el5)
  3 18176  LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1)
  4 12997  LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9-103.ELsmp)
  5 11265  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (Linux 2.6.9-89.0.25.ELsmp)
  6  9788  LISTS.CLEMSON.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-164.11.1.el5)
  7  9599  LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
  8  8662  LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.18-308.el5)
  9  8328  LISTSERV.CC.KULEUVEN.AC.BE (Linux 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5)
 10  7112  HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64)
 11  6685  MARIST (VM/SP 2.0)
 12  6318  LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
 13  6023  LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
 14  5832  LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Enterprise Server 2003)
 15  5652  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default)
 16  4824  LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9)
 17  4233  LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
 18  3860  LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5)
 19  3835  LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10)
 20  3134  YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32-52-generic)

Top 20 sites by volume generated daily (JUN14, 1-29)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     816279  JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
  2     329621  LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
  3     306102  LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
  4     292169  LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1)
  5     234297  LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
  6     221296  H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem)
  7     203602  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.93-0.5-default)
  8     191301  LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
  9     189896  DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-348.18.1.el5)
 10     184743  LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5)
 11     165671  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
 12     151939  PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.9.1.el5PAE)
 13     148565  LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-358.2.1.el6.x86_64)
 14     143465  LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Solaris 2.9)
 15     135537  LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10)
 16     134903  LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen)
 17     129360  LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
 18     124834  LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
 19     124231  LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-431.el6.x86_64)
 20     123802  LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82-0.7-default)

Top 20 lists by number of subscribers (29 Jun 2014)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1      278537  COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default)
  2      110511  COMNET@HERMES.GWU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-220.7.1.el6.x86_64)
  3       86994  EDUCATION_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
  4       74965  RFP-BULLETIN@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
  5       72327  ARTS_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
  6       66551  HEALTH_FUNDING@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
  7       63090  EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
  8       62026  PND-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
  9       59812  GLOBAL-LINKS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG (Windows Server 2003 + LSMTP V1.1b)
 10       52803  FDNCENTER-L@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
 11       50073  FOLKWAYS@SI-LISTSERV.SI.EDU (Solaris 2.10)
 12       48481  ESCRIU-ME@LISTSERV.UV.ES (Linux 2.6.32-5-xen-686)
 13       44053  JOB-ALERT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
 14       37250  CONNECT@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
 15       36809  WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG (Linux 3.0.101-0.15-default)
 16       35744  FC-NYLIB@LISTS.FDNCENTER.ORG (Solaris 2.10)
 17       35145  ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34-0.7-default)
 18       34586  TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2003)
 19       33625  L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1)
 20       33588  EDREV@LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18-371.4.1.el5xen)