Right now, question list API queries (such as /questions
, /questions/unanswered
, /user/{id}/questions
and so on) also return at most 30 answers (apparently) for each question. While this might be useful under certain conditions, I think in most cases it's not. Most applications will only want to display a list of questions without any answer. Having to download 30- answers (well, sans their body) for each question seems like a waste of bandwidth and stackexchange computing power, especially when fetching answer-heavy question lists (such as /questions?sort=votes -- that query would be greatly reduced if there were no answers included).
This especially affects mobile devices where bandwidth is precious and processing power is both sparse and battery-consuming.
In conclusion, I think the answers should be taken away from question lists (maybe a parameter to bring them back if they're really needed). Or, at the very least, include a parameter that specifies no answers should be included.