Please pardon my ignorance, but...

Ok, ya'll take it easy on me now for asking this seemingly dumb question, k?

Not that everyone hasn't been great!

But, umm... what is a "mainland sim" and what is this stuff about "mainland"?

"Mainland" simply refers to the vast continents of land owned and operated by Linden Lab. It is called 'mainland' to distinguish it from a "private island", which is essentially an entire simulator leased to a private party by Linden Lab.

If you're not sure whether a particular piece of land is mainland or private island/estate, an easy way to tell is to look at the About Land dialog, on the Covenant tab, and note the estate owner. Mainland will have (none) listed as the estate owner, while a private island will have the name of the person who owns it.

The mainland is the place where Linden Lab makes land available for people to buy land outright. Basically its a huge number of sims, that you can travel across without having to teleport.

Many, of these sims have actually been bought at auction by private individuals, then cut up into smaller packages and sold on.

Most of the places that most of the people go to most of the time are on the mainland - there are actually several mainlands now, think of them as continents.

The size of a sim on the mainland is exactly the same size as a private island, 65536 sq m, but they are usually cut up into much smaller plots.

Mainland is the large section of continents that Linden Lab maintains. They're all connected and individual parcels are be purchased with no covenants (restrictions). When you own mainland- Linden Lab is the only one capable of telling you what you can/cannot do with the land. It can be split into parcels as large as a sim or as small as 16sqm and each parcel owner is the final owner in LLs eyes.

Private islands can also have many different sims connected- but they are generally much much smaller than mainland continents. Each private island is owned, entirely, by one individual. That individual can then sell pieces of it to tenants with restrictions and the island owners maintain control of the sim.

Thats some good info. Thanks y'all...

I'm not at all surprised at your question.
At one time, Europe was the whole World. As Knowledge of the World Expanded, and New Lands were Added, What was once the centre of the world became known as The Old World. Perhaps soon this will be an apt Description of The Mainland.
Three years ago, the area that Constituted the Mainland was Huge, and Rather difficult to Miss. Second Life has been growing by such a Huge degree over the Ensuing years that the Mainland has become Lost amid a Sea of Islands, and Alternate Continents.In another Year or so, some of these other Continents may become so Huge that the Name "Mainland" may be Lost entirely.

Angel.

Never be ashamed of ignorance. Ignorance should be embraced.

/me hugs himself, blissfully.

If you open your map and check the option to show land for sale, you should easily be able to pick out the mainland, because it has a LOT of parcels for sale generally. Basically there is the Northern Continent (where it all began), the Southern Continent, a significant archipelago inbetween that is *not* mainland, and three newer "mainland" areas on the eastern side of the map, parts of which are currently being auctioned by LL.

The mainland is where all bad Avies are sent to be punished.

No no no, that's the Cornfield! Sheesh!

a mainland sim, is a sim that is linked to a continent, ya know hwo when you do sim searching and ou see these long strip looking land masses?, thats a mainland, and has about 1000 sims in it

The first step towards true wisdom is to admit one knows nothing.