[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – September 1995


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 (SEP95, 1-30)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     706685  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50)
  2     395345  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  3     364510  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4     215462  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5     210308  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
  6     199936  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7     148496  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8     143728  LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2)
  9     143131  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 10     137916  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 11     109030  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12     108366  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 13     107230  SJUVM (VM/SP 7)
 14     102806  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15     100506  OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05)
 16      97997  DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1)
 17      97720  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
 18      97652  MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2)
 19      96310  UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 20      85436  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)

Top 20 sites by number of subscribers (30 Sep 1995)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1       97951  LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  2       88052  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50)
  3       84012  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4       80194  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5       69854  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6       67438  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7       57891  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       49895  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
  9       49742  INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
 10       44132  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 11       43536  ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12       42104  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13       38109  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
 14       38093  UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 15       36146  RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 16       35385  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 17       35287  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 18       34287  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 19       33891  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 20       33544  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)

Top 20 sites by number of lists (30 Sep 1995)

Pos Lists  Site
--- -----  ----
  1   558  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2   552  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  3   487  LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
  4   479  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5   437  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6   413  IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1)
  7   391  CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
  8   358  INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1)
  9   350  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
 10   342  MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 11   339  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
 12   336  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13   329  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 14   320  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15   317  EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1)
 16   313  NIHLIST (VM/SP 5)
 17   304  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 18   299  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 19   295  UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0)
 20   256  MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1)

Top 20 sites by volume generated daily (SEP95, 1-30)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     346343  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2     334040  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  3     227961  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50)
  4     218799  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5     212894  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
  6     166698  BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1)
  7     161049  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8     158637  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
  9     147703  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 10     137636  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 11     136520  SJUVM (VM/SP 7)
 12     127170  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 13     125429  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
 14     118229  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15     112507  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 16     106193  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 17      99523  UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 18      98020  UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 19      86437  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20      81554  TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1)

Top 20 lists by number of subscribers (30 Sep 1995)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1       88225  TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  2       67069  WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50)
  3       26853  TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4       16150  NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5       14507  INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
  6       11945  UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
  7       11821  OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       11328  CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  9       10357  INDIA-D@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
 10        9764  PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 11        9143  CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 12        9088  ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0)
 13        8755  TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 14        8684  CHAN-MSG@ITSSRV1.UCSF.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
 15        8631  MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 16        8314  LOOKING@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
 17        8191  ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.50)
 18        8018  LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 19        7831  CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20        7672  GERMNEWS@DEARN (VM/ESA 1.1)