I read in many places that this should be supported, but either I'm doing it wrong or it is not working.

I just signed up in my-place.social which seems to proclaim federation with over 1000 instances including Lemmy ones.

I put !fediverse in the search bar, but this community does not come up.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a friendica account I can tag to ask about this, or a group I can post in for support?