give a user the option to password protect their own post or thread

[jilly]

Would be nice to be able to give a user the option to password protect a post, or a thread they start. This way if people have topics or issues they want to share only with certain members of the board, they could do that, and give the password to only their friends. This would be helpful for large community boards, esp. those based on medical topics, where a person may not feel comfortable with putting extensive, detailed personal medical information out there for everyone in a 20,000 or more community board to read, when they are only friends or are comfortable with a small minority of that group.

I know the caveat is (and always remains) just don't post anything publicly you wouldn't want someone else to see. However with more and more people of all ages and from everywhere and every situation increasingly living their social lives online, or turning to online forums for help with medical, emotional, financial or physical problems, additional privacy and user control over their content is a valid need.

An additional idea might be to be able to restrict viewing of an indicated thread to a user's 'buddy list' only - but this would not be a substitute for the personal password option, just another 'method' available.