Is using magic (me/self) resource identifiers going against REST principles?

Question

I\'ve seen URIs that support magic ids for the authenticated user like below:

GET /user/me - list my profile
GET /user/me/photos - list my photos
         


        

Answer 1

While I agree with Cassio, I think he didn't select the best quote from the dissertation, since this is a part that's a lot more identifier specific:

The definition of resource in REST is based on a simple premise: identifiers should change as infrequently as possible. Because the Web uses embedded identifiers rather than link servers, authors need an identifier that closely matches the semantics they intend by a hypermedia reference, allowing the reference to remain static even though the result of accessing that reference may change over time. REST accomplishes this by defining a resource to be the semantics of what the author intends to identify, rather than the value corresponding to those semantics at the time the reference is created. It is then left to the author to ensure that the identifier chosen for a reference does indeed identify the intended semantics.

And if you connect the dots, a logged in user is the case in point - same reference to a different resulting content.