11 MB of web space

The only free servers that offer higher have much lower reponse time and service dependability. I have over 100 pages on Thalia's website (see Sitemap), with graphics and midis -- and I'm nowhere near to using up my 11 MB.

Extensive web-development resources

Tripod has a full library of tutorials in web-page design, HTML, image design, Flash and CSS and other advanced tools, and libraries of images, sounds, movies, fonts, postcards and all the other fun additions to a webpage.

Lively communities

On Tripod, these are called Pods; associations of members with similar interests, whether antique automobiles or zoology. Each Pod has a newsletter, a chat room, and other activities and resources in common.           My Pods:

Booktalk

Fantasy

Pageslave

Activism

A range of editing options

• You can make choices of color and layout, and let Tripod write the HTML for you;
• or you can write and edit all the HTML yourself;
• or you can write some of the HTML and let Tripod's tools help you with the rest.

Full sub-directory capability

This may not mean anything to you immediately, but if you have begun developing very complex websites, it will. You want to be able to organize your files into subdirectories, and not all free servers will let you.

True FTP access

The more pages you develop, the more important it will be to be able to download your files for backup, and to write files on your own computer and upload them by FTP.

Tripod respects your copyright DD>and always has. The Tripod Terms of Service require only the permission necessary for Tripod to publish your page on the World Wide Web -- as you want them to -- and to promote it. Absolutely nothing beyond that. And Tripod explicitly states that the Terms of Service expire when your account expires -- something not all other servers state.

There's more; those are the areas of prime interest to me. You may also be interested in chat rooms, games, Tripod's banner program, affiliate programs, or other Tripod options.