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?

  • simple@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    That would be nice but it also comes with the same issues that the Fediverse is trying to avoid. Hosting all images in a central server means that only one group is in control of that and it anything happens like that server going down, it would mean we won’t be able to see images until that gets fixed. It’s safer to have every instance just rely on itself.

      • elboyoloco@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        So you’re saying just put it on… Another instance that we need to worry about overloading… Just not a Lemmy instance?

        • haulyard@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Pixelfed aligns with the fediverse mentality that reduces the risk of losing all the content because one server went down.

          I wasn’t addressing compute, but on that topic, the work has to be done somewhere. Why not spread it out?

  • marshoepial@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    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.