These days it may seem like there isn’t much to lift our spirits. Explosions, sectarianism, religious differences, crumbling infrastructure, low morale, economic meltdown and many other problems are weighing on us heavily. But, for Karachiites, there is still much to love and cherish about our city and many of us would not want to live anywhere else even if we had the choice.

yellO is about connecting with other Karachiites and sharing the best of what our city has to offer. yellO is also a platform for positive change and a place for you to voice your opinion. Through print and through the web, yellO’s mantra is to connect locally with people and places to discover those things that make living in Karachi that little bit better. If we can start by being proud of some of what our city has to offer, perhaps we can find it within ourselves to do something about improving it.

yellO is meant to be an open and inclusive place to share and discuss your views on everything from the best nihari in town to the solution to our electricity woes. A set of guiding principles would be useful to ensure we meet this aim. Since yellO is about you, we thought we would invite you to help formulate them. Here is a starting point:

1. Respect your fellow yellers;
2. Do not target any individuals or groups with abusive or derogatory language;
3. Be opinionated and be bold;
4. Sometimes the city may make you feel down and out, but remember that every city has a soul and by being positive you could lift other’s spirits too;
5. Do discuss politics and feel free to evaluate or criticize the actions of our leaders, but do so in a constructive way;
6. yellO is not a place to incite religious hatred or to promote a particular brand of religion. Remember that views you put forward may be acted upon by others, so be sure of what you say and back it up with proof;
7. Have fun and share the best of our city.