As everyone knows, a mini-series usually refers to a four or six issue run comic that tells a story arc. It is unlike a graphic novel because it is divided up into smaller issues and it is unlike a trade paperback because it is not a part of a larger series. It is also different from the finite runs of comics like Transmet, Sandman, Hitman, Preacher, Cerebus, et cetera.
A mini-series is when a writer has an idea for a story and they tell it. Maybe it's setting up a larger story, like being used as a way to gauge interest in a potential ongoing series. This is no different than the way that television uses pilots to see if a TV series would work.
What is unacceptable is Marvel's recent trend of coming out with a new ongoing series then cancelling it after a few issues and claiming it was a mini-series all along. That's not a mini-series, it's a cancelled ongoing title. I think the fact that Marvel has decided to tell its stories in arc form so as to be able to better fit into trade paperback and thus be sold in bookstore chains has made it easier for them to attempt this approach but all it's doing is cheating the reader as well as insulting their intelligence.
When a writer thinks that these four issues are all that he or she will get then they will handle that story differently than if they are simply telling a four issue arc of an ongoing. The types of seeds they plant, the size and timing of the payoff and more is all determined by the scope of the project. So this means that the readers aren't being given the best presentation of that story. To add insult to injury, when they promote a book as being an ongoing and then tell us that it was a mini, it means that they think that we weren't paying attention or, worse, that we don't know the difference.
I've heard that they do this because Marvel fears promoting a new book as a mini-series since they tend to do worse. That these books are mini's with the potential to blossom into ongoings. Well, then I'd try to sell them as much. Readers (and writers) respond better when they are presented with all the facts up front; readers in particular love to know that their opinions matter.
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