[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – December 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 (DEC95, 1-31)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1    1043625  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  2     241434  LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
  3     217380  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  4     200566  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5     193735  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6     182897  MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  7     152202  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8     151113  MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
  9     150644  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 10     147388  LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2)
 11     102232  LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU (Solaris 2.4)
 12     101621  OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05)
 13      99507  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 14      98935  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15      98296  DEARN (VM/SP 7)
 16      94859  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 17      91002  UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 18      85707  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
 19      83993  KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 20      81782  LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)

Top 20 sites by number of subscribers (31 Dec 1995)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1      186484  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  2      108806  LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  3       95177  LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
  4       87754  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5       84748  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6       74138  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7       73664  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       63154  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
  9       53316  UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2)
 10       51446  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
 11       48463  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 12       45678  ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13       43672  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 14       43389  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15       42176  SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7)
 16       41908  RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 17       39279  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 18       39100  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 19       39080  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 20       39055  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)

Top 20 sites by number of lists (31 Dec 1995)

Pos Lists  Site
--- -----  ----
  1   661  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2   606  LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
  3   591  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  4   548  UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5   482  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  6   451  IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1)
  7   449  LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5)
  8   418  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  9   408  CERNVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 10   402  INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1)
 11   372  MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12   360  HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13   355  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 14   353  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15   340  NIHLIST (VM/SP 5)
 16   337  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 17   327  EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1)
 18   321  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 19   298  MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20   286  MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1)

Top 20 sites by volume generated daily (DEC95, 1-31)

Pos Recipients  Site
--- ----------  ----
  1     307680  PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  2     287381  UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  3     262499  PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  4     220949  SJUVM (???)
  5     214321  LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  6     199553  SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7)
  7     196004  UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8     165877  AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
  9     165525  BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1)
 10     165149  NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
 11     154266  UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 12     130679  MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 13     126534  TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)
 14     124898  MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
 15     123150  CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 16     115347  MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1)
 17     106896  UA1VM.UA.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 18     106222  IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
 19     103308  UMDD (VM/HPO 5.0)
 20     101667  UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)

Top 20 lists by number of subscribers (31 Dec 1995)

Pos Subscribers  Site
--- -----------  ----
  1      110101  WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  2       96774  TOPTEN@LISTSERV.CLARK.NET (Solaris 2.4)
  3       50355  TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
  4       30441  TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
  5       22421  TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04)
  6       18324  NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2)
  7       13053  OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2)
  8       12571  UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7)
  9       11956  CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 10       10603  ISRAELINE@TAUNIVM (VM/HPO 5.0)
 11       10594  INDIA-L@INDNET.BGSU.EDU (SunOS 4.1.3_U1)
 12       10529  ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 13       10224  TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)
 14        9999  PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2)
 15        9519  MACCHAT@TEMPLEVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 16        8444  GERMNEWS@LISTSERV.GMD.DE (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a)
 17        8405  CHINA-ND@KENTVM (VM/ESA 2.1)
 18        8362  LATE-SHOW-NEWS@AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4)
 19        8016  HUMOR@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2)
 20        7340  LINGUIST@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0)