just wondering to be honest.i am currently about to start the negotiations for the second time (cannot remember how i played it through the first time).
is it possible to be balanced in the negotiations? if possible i don't want to favour one side over the other (as my character is neutral to the war).

You can be neutral by giving both sides what they want and which hold they request. I was a blatant stormcloak supporter and tullius was whining about an unfair deal, go back to cyrodil beetch

I think they always whine and I'm not sure you really are choosing anything. The meeting just keeps going until everyone gets what they want and then it ends. Never have figured out why my guy was even there or why his opinion matered.

I always let the Thalmor chick stay, because I can't see any reason why she shouldn't be at the proceedings. She has just as much right as everyone else in the room to be there.

It is possible to have a Fair and reasonable treaty for both sides, I try and manipulate it to avoid certain quests that I can not see my character doing.
This quest is why I still dislike Ulfric, and I am a Stormcloak supporter on almost every character despite my personal feelings on him.

Yes, I ended up giving 1 major stronghold (Markarth) to the Stormcloaks and 2 minor holds (Winterhold and Dawnstar) to the Imperials, plus Elenwen had to go. Ah, and I believe one of the camps had to pay compensation too. It resulted in a neutral outcome. Which is fine, since my character isn't taking any sides for now. Ulfric simply lacks rationality and has brainwashed people following him, and the Imperial ideology doesn't click with this character.

By the way, if you go take a look at the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Season_Unending, there are two tables with the points which will be given according to what options you choose. So you can completely manipulate it at will if you want to.

Tullius is whiny too

I make Elenwen leave to give Ulfric something that doesn't cost anything and I don't like the Thalmor anyway. That was the most fun part of the negotiation. I think it ended up Markarth to Ulfric, Riften to empire and everything else stayed the way it was. In the end, anything lost to the empire was regained for the empire in the unification quest.

Im with Ulfric 100% and he may not understand this. But killing 100 or so imperial fort defenders works wonders leveling lol. So usually Markarth
goes to the stormcloaks and dawnstar & winterhold go to imperials. The whole idea of negotiations kills me. I usually get the civil war out of the way
before this quest if im going to do it anyways, thus no need to do an extra quest and have to travel from High Hrothgar>> Whiterun>> Solitude>>
Windhelm>> High Hrothgar. It hurts my heart to do so much fast traveling.