When I subscribe in a community in another instance it always says "pending " in yellow. I can comment but I am not officially subscribed to the community. E.g. subscribing to “!nostupidquestions@lemmy.ml”
Maybe I just need to wait.
Edit: It says “subscribe pending” in yellow
Weird. I usually have to click “Subscribe” a few times to get the yellow “pending” status. Kinda sucks.