Ask HN: Why is no one making FILE_ID.DIZ anymore? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why is no one making FILE_ID.DIZ anymore?

11 pointsreconnecting6 comments

Back in the BBS days, nearly every ZIP folder contained `.nfo` and `FILE_ID.DIZ` files. I searched for "FILE_ID.DIZ" on GitHub and found only [1], [2], [3] files from last year.

How is it possible that such a strong habit has completely disappeared?

[1] https://github.com/Gargaj/Foxotron/blob/master/file_id.diz

[2] https://github.com/FDOS/freecom/blob/master/FILE_ID.DIZ

[3] https://github.com/TirrenoTechnologies/tirreno/blob/master/FILE_ID.DIZ

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I think the decline of FILE_ID.DIZ files is largely a byproduct of changing distribution methods. Back in the BBS and early FTP days, these small text files were crucial because they provided a quick summary for file archives, especially when bandwidth was limited, and you couldn't afford to waste time downloading the wrong file.

With the rise of platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, project descriptions and metadata have become more integrated. The README.md has essentially replaced FILE_ID.DIZ as the default "project descriptor", but with much more flexibility for formatting, linking, and even embedding media.

Additionally, the way we discover and share software has changed. We now have package managers, app stores, and automatic metadata parsing tools that handle much of what these files used to do. Plus, we expect modern software to have much more comprehensive documentation than a few lines in a .DIZ file.

.diz files are not associated with text viewers/editors on any OS (maybe only on Linux), that's why to open it you need to explicitly select the text application — inconvenience out of thin air compared to .txt extension.

The .diz and .nfo files were made for directories/folders, as in FTP. You open the folder, you don't know what is this (the directory name doesn't tell you much), you download the .diz file and see what does this program do and what is it for.

Nowadays you have websites/readme in the repos for that. And even if you don't know what is that file, you can download it in seconds/minutes, compared to the speeds of the 90s.

It was a strong habit of very very few people. There were not many people with computers; only a small fraction of those users were online; and only a fraction of that fraction were using .zip.

Basically, it was a feature of a subculture that was swept away by the hordes of computer users the pc revolution unleashed.

And it is worth considering that .zip is a bit niche technology among all the people online today…even if everybody we know knows about it, that’s because they are like us…by which I mean semi-competent at googling. Good luck.

We can't. We don't have the ascii artists anymore.

README.MD has replaced it.

Demoscene!

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