Editing FILE ID.DIZ (section)

==History==
Bulletin boards commonly accept uploaded files from their users. The BBS software would prompt the user to supply a description for the uploaded file, but these descriptions were often less than useful. BBS system operators spent many hours going over the upload descriptions correcting and editing the descriptions. The {{mono|FILE_ID.DIZ}} inclusion in archives was designed to address this problem.

[[Clark Development]] and the [[Association of Shareware Professionals]] (ASP) supported the idea of this becoming a standard for file descriptions. Clark rewrote the PCBDescribe program and included it with their [[PCBoard]] BBS software. The ASP urged their members to use this description file format in their distributions. Michael Leavitt, an employee of Clark Development, released the file specification and his PCBDescribe program source code to the public domain and urged other BBS software companies to support the DIZ file.

SysOps could add a common third-party script written in PPL, called "DIZ/2-PCB"<ref>{{Cite web |title=DIZ/2-PCB PPE script for PCBoard, ULBYE100.ZIP |last=Reimerdes |first=Shawn |url=http://annex.retroarchive.org/cdrom/pier-04/004/ULBYE100/index.html}}</ref> that would process, rewrite, verify, and format DIZ files from archives as they were uploaded to a BBS. The software would extract the archive, examine the contents, compile a report, import the DIZ description file and then format it according to your liking. During this time, it was usual practice to add additional lines to the description, such as ads exclaiming the source of the uploaded BBS.

Even since the decline of the [[dial-up]] [[bulletin board system]], FILE_ID.DIZ files are still utilized by the [[warez scene]] in their releases of [[warez|unlicensed software]]. They are commonly bundled as part of the complete packaging by pirate groups, and indicate the number of disks, and other basic information. Along with the [[.nfo|NFO]] file, it is essential to the release.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Craig |first1=P. |last2=Honick |first2=R. |last3=Burnett |first3=M. |year=2005 |chapter=The Release |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/softwarepiracyex0000crai/page/95 |title=Software Piracy Exposed |page=[https://archive.org/details/softwarepiracyex0000crai/page/95 95] |doi=10.1016/B978-193226698-6/50030-1 |isbn=978-1-93-226698-6}}</ref>