> rather than pointing out that REST is something almost nobody needs (self discoverable APIs intended for evolvable clients).

Well, besides that, I don't see how REST solves the problem it says it addresses. So your user object includes an activate field that describes the URI you hit to activate the user. When that URI changes, the client doesn't even notice, because it queries for a user and then visits whatever it finds in the activate field.

Then you change the term from "activate" to "unslumber". How does the client figure that out? How is this a different problem from changing the user activation URI?