Sounds like some bug.

On my Peertube instance the steps you describe work fine.

It must be a bug, I’m on peertube.wtf and have been subscribed to dozens of other instance channels for months.

im aware there is an anime instance that has some nsfw communities that can only be viewed at the instance. If I understand it right. That is all im aware of. EDITED - I foolishly did not let peertube sink in. Im talking about piefed.