Why not? We have quite a few members who keep snakes and lizards. Its not a wildly popular or active section, but those few members who keep snakes do like to look at it and use it occasionally.
Because having tortoises does not mean you have no other animals (which is why we have sections for other pets too). We also have an entire section for non tortoise (or animals) talking. Things like books, music, cars, or just things going on in our lives we need or want to share. So true, it is a TORTOISE forum, but we also open it up to the rest of our lives. I hope you grow to enjoy learning about not only tortoises, but the personality and lives of those who care for them.
Because we want to learn. And if you look outside the box we can learn. For example 13yrs ago I had problems getting eggs to hatch but I read a article about snake eggs and tried it and now I can hatch eggs for my torts
Personally for me I have grown to like checking this forum, seeing updates on torts and answer any questions I know how. A lot of people use this because they don't have any "reptile lovers" in there family or friends like me. We don't always have people that are passionate of the same things. I try to tell my dad about my snake and he says he'd rather kill it than be around it. It is nice to come together and find a place where other people are just as passionate and enthusiastic as me. And lets face it, tragedies, sickness, and death do occur here. Though tortoises have a long life span, that doesn't always mean they'll live it to the fullest. Some people join here with their tort, think its an amazing place, share their tort stories, and next thing you know the tortoise passes away. That happened to me, I had a leopard hatchling and he passed away and I was devistated. But, I still have my snake and my tegu. I love that this forum has other sections to talk because if not i'd have to leave because I have no tortoise anymore and I'd feel like an outcast. I know quite a few people keep snakes and lizards here, and its nice to not have to join separate forums for each one, you can come to one place to share all your animals and get questions answered.
With that many question marks, shall we take it that you don't like snakes? Do they offend, scare or disgust you?
Tortoises are reptiles. Many people who are interested in tortoises are also interested in other reptiles.
Every forum I have ever seen has subforums for off topic, or related topics. Due to the fact that snakes and tortoises are both reptiles, I consider snakes to be a related topic for a tortoise forum. Some of the husbandry principles apply and useful products can sometimes be found. For example, I recently discovered radiant heat panels for use in my outdoor tortoise enclosures. I like them better than the typically used ceramic heating elements because they don't create a potentially shell damaging hot spot in one small section of the night box. I discovered this new product on a snake related website. These RHPs were designed for large boas and pythons, so they they could be warm enough over a large area, but no be so hot that they could get burned if they reach up and touch the heating element.
My favorite fishing forum has a sub forum for remote controlled cars lol. Personally I don't like going to 47 different forums for my varying hobbies so it's nice to see sub forums in the main forums I peruse.
Just like the previous responses, many tortoise owners also enjoy many other species including other reptiles so it's nice to go to one forum and discuss all the different animals we keep.