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 1626154 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 429622 LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 3 285158 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 4 279309 MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU (OpenVMS V6.2 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 237609 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 230064 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 7 217428 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 186949 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 176886 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 10 168253 LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU (Ultrix 4.2) 11 151254 OBSLAVE.UCS.INDIANA.EDU (HP-UX A.09.05) 12 146241 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 141589 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 139343 LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU (Windows NT 4.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 137709 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 137603 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 17 132260 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 18 127681 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 19 110482 LISTMAIL.SUNET.SE (BSD/OS 2.0 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 109795 LISTSERV.RL.AC.UK (SunOS 4.1.3)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 978264 DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 258430 LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 3 249975 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 95444 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 5 87956 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 85007 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 79302 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 70312 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 60307 UCF1VM (VM/ESA 2.2) 10 55368 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 11 54845 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 12 54579 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 13 52364 RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 14 50265 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 15 48275 ASUACAD (VM/ESA 2.2) 16 45479 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 17 43813 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 42732 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 19 42701 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 20 41984 UMINN1 (VM/HPO 5.0)
Pos Lists Site --- ----- ---- 1 806 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1) 2 775 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 638 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 4 557 LISTSERV.VT.EDU (AIX 3.2.5) 5 555 UICVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 6 525 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 7 496 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 414 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 9 401 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 10 385 IRISHVMA (VM/ESA 1.1) 11 382 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 12 373 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 373 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 14 372 HEARN (VM/ESA 2.2) 15 366 NIHLIST (VM/SP 5) 16 346 EMUVM1 (VM/ESA 1.1) 17 338 ULKYVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 328 MIAMIU (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 305 MCGILL1 (VM/ESA 2.1) 20 303 INDYCMS (VM/ESA 1.1)
Pos Recipients Site --- ---------- ---- 1 458600 UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 2 412150 PSUVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 3 335041 PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 300277 SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (VM/SP 7) 5 276663 LISTSERV.SYR.EDU (Solaris 2.4) 6 239849 MITVMA (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 227663 NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 8 206170 AMERICAN.EDU (AIX 3.2.4) 9 205540 MSU.EDU (VM/XA SP 2.1) 10 203909 UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 11 194932 MAIL.EWORLD.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 12 188508 BROWNVM (VM/ESA 1.1) 13 173464 TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU (VM/HPO 6.0) 14 172719 CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0) 15 155707 IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 16 149014 TREARN (VM/XA SP 2.1) 17 141324 UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 18 140782 UKCC (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 140588 LSV.UKY.EDU (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 130799 LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU (AIX 4.1)
Pos Subscribers Site --- ----------- ---- 1 414258 SPECIAL-DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 2 373649 DISPATCH@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 3 110071 WSJ-ANNOUNCE@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 4 59154 IN-TOUCH@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 5 43917 TECHLINK@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 6 35645 TIDBITS@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (VM/ESA 2.2) 7 32022 MS-WINDOWS95-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 8 29546 TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 9 26604 SCOUT-REPORT@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (SunOS 4.1.4) 10 24138 PC-GAMES-NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 11 20447 MS-WINDOWS3X-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 12 19423 NEW-LIST@NDSUVM1 (VM/ESA 2.2) 13 16719 AOL-EZONE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM (HP-UX A.09.04) 14 15760 MS-WINDOWS-ALL--NEW@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 15 15097 MS-WINDOWS95-TOP@DISPATCH.CNET.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 16 14967 OMRI-L@UBVM (VM/ESA 2.2) 17 12953 UCSMON@IUBVM (VM/SP 7) 18 12697 CCMAN-L@UGA (VM/ESA 2.2) 19 12688 ONLINE-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (Windows NT 3.51 + LSMTP V1.0a) 20 12066 TESL-L@CUNYVM (VM/ESA 2.1.0)