[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – September 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 (SEP94)

Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 469730 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 2 295392 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 202838 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 145982 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 5 128848 UIUCVM42 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 6 125003 UCBCMSA (VM/ESA 2.1) 7 116122 SUVM (???) 8 113308 ARIZVM1 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 9 112929 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 10 100784 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 80594 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 12 66278 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 65176 DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 14 60378 AUVM (???) 15 55704 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 55335 KSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 54958 SEARN (VM/ESA 1.1) 18 51929 UKACRL (VM/ESA 1.1) 19 50602 UICVM (VM/ESA 2) 20 40432 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)

Top 20 sites by volume generated (SEP94)

Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 260897 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 201070 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 160631 SUVM (???) 4 144717 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 119247 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 6 108020 UICVM (VM/ESA 2) 7 100171 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 8 93818 UGA (VM/ESA 2.1) 9 90035 AUVM (???) 10 87964 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 80003 UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0) 12 75339 VTVM1 (VM/XA SP 2.1) 13 60710 KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1) 14 58556 UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1) 15 51484 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 16 51051 UVMVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 17 50504 JHUVM (???) 18 50106 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 49306 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 20 48489 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.2)