[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – November 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 (NOV95, 1-30)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1    1202477  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  2     262850  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  3     245811  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4     232281  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5     223414  LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
  6     181896  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7     175065  MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  8     172134  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
  9     170828  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 10     164583  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 11     159291  LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2)
 12     140791  MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
 13     125312  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 14     119566  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
 15     114835  OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05)
 16     114472  DEARN (VM/SP 7)
 17     111558  LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)
 18     108117  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 19     106884  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20     105790  UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)

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

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1      136412  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  2      106087  LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  3       87734  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4       86030  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5       73494  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6       72798  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7       63090  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       62059  UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  9       59462  LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
 10       51636  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
 11       48176  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 12       45735  ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13       43628  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 14       43353  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15       40482  RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 16       38775  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 17       38658  SJUVM (VM/SP 7)
 18       38560  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 19       38028  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20       37939  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)

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

Pos Lists  Site
--- -----  ----
  1   625  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2   589  LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
  3   580  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4   535  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5   470  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6   445  IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1)
  7   408  CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
  8   404  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  9   402  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
 10   397  INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1)
 11   365  MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12   349  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13   346  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 14   346  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 15   343  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 16   336  NIHLIST (VM/SP 5)
 17   324  EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1)
 18   307  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 19   289  UMRVMB (VM/HPO 5.0)
 20   286  MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2)

Top 20 sites by volume generated daily (NOV95, 1-30)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     360284  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2     353919  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  3     267899  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  4     260962  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  5     236885  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6     192945  SJUVM (VM/SP 7)
  7     191013  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
  8     183813  BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1)
  9     181928  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 10     167726  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 11     156411  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12     156122  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 13     145583  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 14     143943  MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15     125868  UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 16     122562  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
 17     117595  MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
 18     116804  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 19     108921  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20     106818  UIUCVMD (VM/XA SP 2.1)

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

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1       94941  TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  2       88825  WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  3       29276  TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4       23041  TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  5       20139  TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
  6       18293  NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7       12860  OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       12475  UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
  9       11816  CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 10       10871  INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
 11       10452  ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0)
 12        9992  PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13        9904  TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 14        9843  MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 15        9725  ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 16        8740  CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 17        8637  GERMNEWS@LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 18        8338  LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 19        8109  HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20        7512  CHINA-NN@ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)