Craigslist – What Happens if Using Semi-Anonymous Email Relay After Six Months?

craigslistemail-forwarding

http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/email-relay describes the semi-anonymous email relay service Craigslist runs for its users. That page states:

Q: Can I continue to communicate with respondents after my ad has been removed?

A: Yes, existing reply email communication threads can continue for up to 6 months.

Users of the Craigslist forums report that the service sometimes allows a thread to continue for longer: e.g. eight months.

Still, what happens if you try to reply when it's too late?

Best Answer

I did an exact-phrase search through the Craigslist help desk forum archives for the query [ "after 6 months" ].

I found that an anonymous forum poster reports:

Emails just vanished after 6 months, according to my correspondent (we had already exchanged alternate addresses). No bounce.

My own experimentation with replying to very old threads indicates that the anonymous poster is probably correct. Indeed, your new email will never be delivered. Instead, it will be silently discarded. And, indeed, you will not get any notification that the email was discarded.