![[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 697556 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 224227 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 3 206716 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 191520 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 183385 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 6 168829 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 7 147323 LISTSERV.TDBANK.CA (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 8 138217 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 9 137276 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 129576 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 125585 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 117771 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 116155 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 14 111244 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 15 106653 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 100935 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 17 99892 OCLCLISTS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 99569 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 97046 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 20 94816 LISTS.VATRAFFIC.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5044143 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3671776 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 3 2154659 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1456303 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 5 1454401 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 1416633 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 7 1300281 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1282581 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 9 1132924 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 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 14 801598 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 15 799895 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 16 789705 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 754134 LISTSERV.ECU.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 749307 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 745493 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 717435 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 27472 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 2 16804 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14352 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 13994 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 7598 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 7056 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6678 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 5873 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5467 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5079 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 14 4594 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 3998 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 18 3982 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 3936 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 3474 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 669530 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 221536 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 3 202700 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 184951 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 5 167659 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 6 133120 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 7 128389 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 8 122031 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 9 115165 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 10 113020 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 109352 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 99175 LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 13 96563 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 94816 LISTS.VATRAFFIC.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 15 93699 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 16 91644 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.14.2.el6.x86_64) 17 88701 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 87762 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 19 87515 LISTSERV.AAP.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 84546 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300656 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 61633 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 3 54050 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (Linux 3.10.0) 4 46503 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 41763 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (Linux 4.4.162) 6 36548 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 7 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 8 33602 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 9 30835 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 11 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 12 28377 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 28316 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 14 27710 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 15 27401 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 16 26418 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 17 25008 2019-STEM-EVENT-L@LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU (Windows Server 2012 Datacenter x64 Edition) 18 24992 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 19 24765 ISMA@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 20 24496 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition)