[lazylland]

Here's something I've observed:

i) most successful "RESTful" APIs don't really follow all the REST principles (e.g Flickr, Amazon, Dropbox). My thumb rule is this: If an API does not start from a "mother" URI that gives you the most updated list of resources that can then be requested by the application, it is not really HATEOAS.

ii) a purely resource-oriented view of your entire API space shoehorns you into doing really strange things to keep REST "purity"

So my conclusion is that using an architecture/concept originally intended for humans navigating hypermedia documents may not be a natural fit for parts of your API that cannot be modeled as such. See the Dropbox REST API documentation (http://www.dropbox.com/developers/docs#api-specification) (" Section: Deviations From Standard REST Style") to see an example of the pragmatic decisions taken.