> This is an important lesson - if someone is using your tool in unexpected ways don’t just shut them down; there’s likely a business case that could be identified and specialized in.
One of the craziest cases of this I've seen was with a web-based survey application I was the principal engineer on in the mid to late 2000's. A big feature we implemented was the ability to create surveys to support multiple languages. To make translation easier for our customers to translate surveys outside of the application, there were ways to export/import the text strings as well as a standalone screen that allowed finding and editing them. Both of these were made easier by the fact that the strings had semantic identifiers like "/survey/question/choice" or similar.
Since this functionality worked so well, we also used it internally for all text in the application. As a convenience, both the import/export and edit screen were capable of editing these strings. One customer figured this out and, due to the naming, was easily able to identify the text for all screens and dialogs. They ended up completely modifying the application interface through this interface by editing text, adding HTML elements, and injecting CSS blocks. They added descriptive tutorial text, guides for users, and branded the application well beyond built-in functionality. It was pretty amazing.
One of the craziest cases of this I've seen was with a web-based survey application I was the principal engineer on in the mid to late 2000's. A big feature we implemented was the ability to create surveys to support multiple languages. To make translation easier for our customers to translate surveys outside of the application, there were ways to export/import the text strings as well as a standalone screen that allowed finding and editing them. Both of these were made easier by the fact that the strings had semantic identifiers like "/survey/question/choice" or similar.
Since this functionality worked so well, we also used it internally for all text in the application. As a convenience, both the import/export and edit screen were capable of editing these strings. One customer figured this out and, due to the naming, was easily able to identify the text for all screens and dialogs. They ended up completely modifying the application interface through this interface by editing text, adding HTML elements, and injecting CSS blocks. They added descriptive tutorial text, guides for users, and branded the application well beyond built-in functionality. It was pretty amazing.