[LISTSERV - the mailing list management classic]

LISTSERV Top 20 statistics – March 1996


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 (MAR96, 1-31)

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)

Top 20 sites by number of subscribers (31 Mar 1996)

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)

Top 20 sites by number of lists (31 Mar 1996)

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)

Top 20 sites by volume generated daily (MAR96, 1-31)

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)

Top 20 lists by number of subscribers (31 Mar 1996)

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)