Now one thing I would agree with is that many min-series are that because of their length.  However in most cases they are deliberately made into sreparate parts and each episode/part exits at a climactic point to get you to tune into the next episode/part of the series.  So I would not agree that it is just a "long movie" cut up into parts because they won't play it in one night.

Stop trying to create a non-existent problemace. Treat like any other TV series
. Your miniseries argument rings hollow and self serving, so you can skirt a rule.

Pretty much everything made for commercial-supported TV has a mini-cliffhanger before each break. It has nothing to do with whether it's a series or a movie. I counted up my own collection. I own 29 miniseries that have the same credits for each episode. As the DB currently stands, seven list the duplicated credits and twenty-two do not. That's a large enough sample that it should be a good indication of how the DB in general goes. Maybe The vast majority of miniseries are entered wrong, but bringing up the inconsistency isn't making a fuss over a non-issue.

Edited to add: Are you saying that the majority of entries are wrong or that Tin Man is a different case than most?

We are just going to have to agree to disagree at this point

My position is that the rules intent is if a mini-series is separated into parts/episodes with end credits on each distinct part/episode they should be separated. Even if they are the same for each part/episode.  You are just simply entering the end credits to each part/episode

Also I would guess the vast majority of people would agree that a TV mini series is a TV series as far as the rules go.  The only reason that "mini series" was coined in the TV industry was because it is a series with a finite end.

Now whether your collection contains "precedence" of "As the DB currently stands" can be debated.  I can show you mine has a different one.  But it does not matter if 1/100 or 99/100 are profiled incorrectly based on the current rules.  They are still profiled incorrectly.  Now I am not going to say which ones are profiled incorrectly since I can only speak to the ones that I own that I can check.  So I am not going to say which ones are and which ones are not.  Also another thing to point out is some of those (I don't know) ,may have been profiled before all rules and dividers were put in place.

Currently there are no different classifications of "different" types of "TV mini series" anywhere that show they should be profiled differently than a TV Series.  So until that occurs they should be profiles as per the TV series rules.  At least as far as the online database goes.

Had this problem with "The Pillars of the Earth" and couldn't see any reason to enter the data by episode when this would mean to enter exactly the same data.

Strictly speaking those that want to treat this cases just like any other episode-based show are correct, but what would be the point here?

EDIT:
If I understood the system correctly Episode dividers were implemented to be able to track varying cast and crew credits. This absolutely made sense.
It makes absolutely no sense to force this system when there are no varying credits.

Ahhh, wait a moment, ... I tend to forget: It makes no sense, then it has to be the correct way!

Quoting Wigram:

Quote:
Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

Quote:
My contention is that with miniseries, there's a fine line with long TV movies on one end and a TV series with a short run on the other end. Treating all of them the same way will end up with suboptimal results. If the makers treat it like a movie with no episode names and only one set of credits (which they have to show every night because of union rules), then we should treat it like a movie. If they treat it like a TV series where episodes have individual name and/or credits, then we should treat it like a TV series.

Yes, there's nothing in the rules that says this, but there's nothing that says otherwise, either. The rules are silent on how miniseries should be handled. I'm saying we should treat them like this because out of all the approaches that are consistent with the rules, it makes the most sense. Also, that's the way most series are currently entered.

I agree that treating some miniseries and TV series in the same fashion is far from ideal. Take, for instance, a BBC adaptation of a literary classic, which tells one long story in, say, four parts. This is obviously far different from a procedural showing different stories with a core set of characters, 26 times a year for several years.

However, taking your case of a miniseries, divided in several untitled parts, with identical opening and end credits, and looking at the available options, one is faced with two unsatisfactory options:
1. Enter it as a single long feature, thus avoiding the repetition of identical credits but losing the information that the feature was indeed shown in parts and is offered in parts on the disc;
2. Enter it as an episode-based show, thus inflating the profile by repeating exactly identical information several times in both the cast and crew credit sections.

In the end, I think option 2 is better because redundancy is better than missing data.

I agree especially since your case 1 is an exceptoin to the rule that is not documented as an allowed exception in the rule.  The rules are there for data integrity and consistancy. So as you can tell I think they should be done as your option 2 and if it is soemthing that people feel that needs to be changed there is the process for getting the exception added to the rule.  But until that happens we have to keep to the rules.

Again, though, the idea that this would be an exception is predicated on the idea that all miniseries are a kind of TV series and not a kind of TV movie. I don't think this is obvious and the rules don't say it. This isn't a matter of you wanting the follow the rules and me wanting to carve out an exception. It's an ambiguity about which rules apply.

Quoting Ace_of_Sevens:

Quote:
Again, though, the idea that this would be an exception is predicated on the idea that all miniseries are a kind of TV series and not a kind of TV movie. I don't think this is obvious and the rules don't say it. This isn't a matter of you wanting the follow the rules and me wanting to carve out an exception. It's an ambiguity about which rules apply.

Well that is where you and I differ is I do not see an ambiguity and that it is clear in the rules.

I don't think it is ambiguous at all that a TV mini series is to be treated as a TV series

I think treating this differently creates ambuiguity especially since that exception is not in the rules themseleves.

EDIT: The ambiguity is being created because your desire to classify some TV Mini Series as a "TV Movie" and profile them as a film (as far as cast and credits goes) and some as a TV Series.  When they are presented on the disc as multiple parts and each part has end credits