![[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]](/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 831869 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 353156 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 339184 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 4 292187 NEWSMAIL.WYANOKEGROUP.COM (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 5 278907 LSERV.CARDSYS.AT (Linux 2.6.32-44-pve) 6 251974 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 7 241120 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 230685 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 9 229595 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 226189 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 11 224492 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 12 211659 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 205738 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 14 201004 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 192126 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 16 190821 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 17 187371 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 18 182561 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 180145 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 20 161814 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 4820130 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3396883 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 3 1770184 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1641212 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1397557 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 6 1369795 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 7 1210953 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 8 1142595 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 10 995311 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 11 966202 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 12 941373 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 13 911845 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 14 897103 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 15 889385 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.82) 16 812635 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 17 730319 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 709104 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 685196 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 619668 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 26195 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 2 14719 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 13970 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 4 13017 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 7143 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 6845 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6770 LISTSERV.TECHNION.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6402 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 11 6203 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 12 5684 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 13 5481 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 14 4254 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 3997 LISTSERV.ND.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 16 3869 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 17 3495 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 2.6.18) 18 3426 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3403 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32) 20 3391 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 807797 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 348135 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 334740 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 4 245572 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 238069 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2003) 6 229727 LISTSERV.MED.CORNELL.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 7 223759 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 215706 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 9 203619 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 10 197203 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 188929 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 12 180714 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 13 180646 H-NET.MSU.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 179999 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 15 171931 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 16 158751 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard x64 Edition + LSMTP V1.1b) 17 145158 LISTS.ASU.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 18 142049 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 140298 PO.MISSOURI.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 135669 LISTSERV.UIC.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-504.8.1.el6.x86_64)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300738 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 2 300603 NYSTEACHING@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 3 77110 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 62648 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 5 54123 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (AIX 5.3) 6 41256 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (AIX 7.1) 7 37599 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 34950 ASMSU@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34) 9 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 10 33622 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 11 30848 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.18) 12 30359 L-FACSTAFF-NEWSWIRE-UP@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 15 28443 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 28282 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 17 27723 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 27425 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 19 26414 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 20 26116 CSTORE@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.0.34)