You are RIGHT!!!
This problem really came from node version I installed in my laptop. To make "npm link" without sudo I was using nvm to install NodeJS and I forgot to select version 12.17.0.
Great teams. Thanks a lot!
So I know there's an imagur plugin, but before I install it and start testing I wanted to ask if that's my best bet for the following: hosting images and videos off my server in a way that's free (or at least cheaper than VPS storage) and PRIVATE. The private aspect is very important, it is essential that there is no way to access the images/videos unless you're logged into the nodebb forum. Can this be done with the imagur plugin?
Sorry for the lack of a reply. I know imgur hosts only images lol, I'd probably have to use one service for images and another for videos. And yeah it'd have to use some kind of token or authentication and the host would have to allow private content. Guessing that doesn't exist, but just wanted to check.