How to start a conversation on Silky Road, why every thread belongs to a listing, and what to do when you cannot message someone.
Conversations on Silky Road always attach to a listing. You message a seller from their listing, and the thread belongs to that listing. There is no free-floating direct messaging between accounts.
That one rule explains most of the questions people have about messaging, so it is worth holding on to.
You can start up to 30 new conversations per day. Replying inside conversations you already have is not affected by that.
Sellers cannot cold-message people. You can only start a thread with someone who has already made an offer or a bid on one of your listings, or with whom you have a dispute.
If a buyer is looking at your listing but has not engaged yet, you will need to wait for them to contact you. This is deliberate — without it, anyone could post a listing and message any member of the platform.
Only listings in one of these states:
| Listing state | Can you message about it? |
|---|---|
| Live | Yes |
| Awaiting payment | Yes — this is when people most need to talk |
| Sold | Yes — a completed sale still needs a handover channel |
| Draft, pending review, rejected, cancelled | No |
If you see This listing isn't available for messages, the listing is in one of the last group. That is the single most common reason a message cannot be started.
Your inbox lists every conversation you are part of, whether you started it or not.
Conversations are per listing, not per person. If you are dealing with the same seller about two different listings, that is two separate conversations. If you are hunting for "the conversation with Sam" and cannot find it, you are almost certainly looking under the wrong listing — threads do not disappear on their own, and there is no way to delete one.
Conversations stay in your inbox after a listing sells.
If you see Conversation not found, either you are not a participant in that thread or you are signed in to a different account. Being signed in to the wrong account is by far the most common cause.
Sending someone a link to a conversation does not give them access. Only the buyer and the seller in a thread can read it, so links are not a way to share a conversation with anyone else.
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