Is it better if we have another site host images/videos to lessen server load?
Hey I'm not really a tech-savvy person yet but I was wondering if it's better for server load to upload an image to Imgur or another image/video-hosting site first and then place the link in a post instead of directly uploading to Lemmy?
I want to contribute content-wise but I also want servers to stay up and not be overloaded. What would be best you think?
In terms of server load (CPU) Lemmy uses a separate service for uploading / storing images (pictrs). It runs on the same server but in the grand scheme of things it's never a bottleneck. Typically static image uploads are cached so it's not much effort for the server.
However uploading images direct to Lemmy does have a storage impact. I know my home instance (lemm.ee) has a 100kb size limit for uploads, others may do that too.
If you're concerned about that aspect, you can use a separate image hosting service too. As long as the link in your post points directly to an image, it'll embed fine.