![[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 840761 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 699322 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 479121 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 310923 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 5 282629 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 6 279627 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 7 266695 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 8 243880 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 242831 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 242647 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 11 234887 DIGITAL.ANNEXBUSINESSMEDIA.COM (Linux 3.13.0-32-generic) 12 229663 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 13 228977 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 14 226846 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 15 208071 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 16 187328 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 17 184028 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.3.5.el6.x86_64) 18 180378 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 19 177988 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 176672 LISTSERV.ACM.ORG (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 5266400 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 2 3708668 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 3 2132359 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 4 1370315 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 5 1352457 LISTSERV.TAU.AC.IL (Linux 2.6.9) 6 1327852 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 7 1311973 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 8 1282581 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 9 1169801 LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 1059036 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 993831 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 944029 LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 13 830150 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 14 818258 CUVMC.AIS.COLUMBIA.EDU (VM/SP 4.0) 15 817802 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 786551 LISTSERV.UA.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 17 779172 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 752584 LISTSERV.ECU.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 19 735719 LISTSERV.UH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 20 726039 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 27331 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 2 16978 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 3 14229 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 4 11643 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 7616 MARIST (VM/SP 2.0) 9 6868 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 10 6624 LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 11 5598 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 5519 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 13 5111 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 14 4459 LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 4398 LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 16 4372 LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 17 3941 LISTSERV.MILLERSVILLE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 18 3912 LISTS.QUEENSU.CA (Solaris 2.10) 19 3871 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 20 3709 YORKU.CA (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 810798 JISCMAIL.AC.UK (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 2 698587 LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 3 474824 LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 4 310752 LISTES.ULAVAL.CA (Linux 3.10.0) 5 278978 LIST.ETSI.ORG (Windows Server 2016 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 271201 LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK (Linux 2.6.32) 7 243854 LISTS.UCDENVER.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 8 243564 LISTSERV.UMD.EDU (SunOS 5.10) 9 237779 LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 10 229465 DISCUSSIONS.EQ.EDU.AU (Linux 2.6.18-404.el5) 11 225514 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 12 222027 LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.11) 13 206615 LISTS.UFL.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 14 196192 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 15 184175 LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 16 182060 LISTS.HAWAII.EDU (Linux 2.6.32-754.3.5.el6.x86_64) 17 177635 LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 18 177504 LISTSERV.REDIRIS.ES (Linux 2.6.32-504.3.3.el6.x86_64) 19 163760 LIST.UVM.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 20 156341 LISTS.UMN.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 300656 COMPUTING@LIST.MSU.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 2 62370 EXCEL@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 3 62128 CAREERCENTERUPDATE@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 4 54050 AMIS-CNRS-INTERNATIONAL-L@IN2P3.FR (Linux 3.10.0) 5 42310 SAFETYNOTICE@LISTSERV.UC.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition) 6 41763 OPSWNEWS@LISTSERV.NYSED.GOV (Linux 4.4.162) 7 39494 CMU-BASKETBALL@LS2.CMICH.EDU (Linux 3.10.0) 8 34587 TCUATHLETICSDIRECTOR@LISTSERV.TCU.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 9 33604 L-SMEAL-REPORT@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 10 30835 FOCIS_GROUP@LISTS.WAYNE.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 11 29311 HALLCOLIBRARY-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU (Linux 2.6.32) 12 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 13 28918 BEDRIJVENLIJST2@LS.KULEUVEN.BE (Linux 2.6.32) 14 28320 L-THON-NEWS@LISTS.PSU.EDU (AIX 6.1) 15 27709 RECREATION@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 16 27402 VOLUPDATE@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU (Solaris 2.10) 17 27079 HINDU-D@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU (Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition) 18 26418 PARENTS@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Linux 3.0.101) 19 25171 CANVASSTUDENTS_AUTO@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU (Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard x64 Edition) 20 24990 NCHPAD-NEWS@LISTSERV.UAB.EDU (Linux 2.6.32)