Maybe I'm not using it correctly but I'm hiving issues using the search functions to find communities. The community i was trying to find was the Reptiles and amphibians community on mander (https://mander.xyz/c/herpetology). I'm not sure how to sub otherwise. Cheers!
the formatting is key though you dont need the @mander.xyz if you are local you just need the "!" at the beginning.
When you click into a community youll see the "lookup name" right under the title
It's one of the things they don't tell you hahaha. Thanks for your help.