Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.This is a love story.
It doesn't start out that way. It starts out pretty mundane, with three guys sitting in a room, talking about Internet domain names.
But trust me, by the end, there are violins and grand gestures. Plus lots of kissing. And at least one handsome man in a cowboy hat. Love, marriage, baby carriages — the whole shebang.
But first — domain names.
Just before Valentine's Day, John Hobbs turned to his partners at What Cheer web design and asked them if they felt like doing anything with iloveinomaha.com.
Hobbs, John Henry Müller and Alex Gates own What Cheer together. And a few years ago, they launched a sweet little online ode to Omaha at iliveinomaha.com.
Hundreds of people have visited that site and left their own reasons for living in Omaha. It's really cool. You should do it. (I just did.)
Since then, What Cheer has purchased the domain name iloveinomaha.com. They weren't sure what they would do with it, but it was only one letter away from "I live in Omaha," and you know how it is . . . You never know when you'll need a domain name. Better safe than sorry.
With Valentine's Day just a few days away, Hobbs asked the other guys: So what do you think? Should we do something?
Their response was a resounding "sure."
They put a few hours (a very few hours) into building a site and asked a few friends to help them get it rolling.
Basically, "I love in Omaha" invites you upload a photo of you and your loved one and then fill in these blanks: "I love ____ in Omaha because ____."
Once your submission is posted, you get a unique web address that you can link to or share on Facebook. Or you can just go to the site and page through all the submissions like a photo album.
John Henry's Valentine message is the first in the series. "I love Denise in Omaha because she is just what I needed." (You can see John Henry and his wife, Denise, by visiting the site and clicking the left arrow. And yes, that is a reference to the Cars song.)
John's is second: "I love Darcy in Omaha because she is everything I could want."
And Alex posted: "I love Jamie in Omaha because she makes my heart happy." They're No. 17.
The What Cheer guys would have been thrilled if the site saw as much action as "I live in Omaha," which has had about 800 contributions since 2009.
They launched "I love in Omaha" early Valentine's Day morning (more like late Valentine's Day eve), and by the time they woke up, it had taken off.
More than 500 people posted Valentine's messages that day — and there were more than 350,000 page views.
The site is set up so that each submission has to be approved. (About one in 10 submissions to "I live in Omaha" are lame and snarky. If you try to insult Omaha on that site, What Cheer sends you a form email inviting you to leave. Like, leave Omaha. Ha.)
People weren't trying to prank "I love in Omaha," but the sheer number of submissions was overwhelming.
And the guys wanted everyone who posted on Valentine's Day to show up on the site that day. You wouldn't want to send a link to your sweetheart three days late.
Without even planning on it, What Cheer had gotten itself involved in hundreds of people's Valentine's Day plans.
John Henry: "I've had a lot of people say, 'You saved the day for so many guys in Omaha.'"
How seriously and how sincerely people took their submissions was surprising to the What Cheer staff.
"It's sort of overwhelming, really," John Henry said, "reading all these super-positive, super-personal things."
The site is almost hypnotic. If you live in Omaha, you'll likely recognize a few of the couples. And once you start reading their dedications — "I love Jamie in Omaha because she loves me everywhere," "I love Cody in Omaha because this is where it all started with a secret handshake" — it's hard to stop.
You're struck by how happy and beautiful these couples are — and how normal they look. They're more interesting, Alex says, because you know they're from Omaha. I'm not sure why that is, but he's right.
It's also striking to see the variety of people who've shared their photos on the site. Younger, older. Gayer, straighter. With and without cowboy hats.
At first all the submissions to the site were statements of romantic love. But as Valentine's Day went on, people started posting loving messages to friends and family. As long as it's a personal message, What Cheer will post it.
Even now.
Valentine's Day may be over, but iloveinomaha.com isn't going anywhere. It's become a living Valentine for everyone who posts there.
And What Cheer is happy to keep supporting the site. They didn't plan to become Keepers of the Love, but it's not such a bad job. It fits who they are as a business.
"The company sort of (has) that personality," John Henry says. "Being over the top silly or goofy or sappy — and being okay with it."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1149, rainbow.rowell@owh.com
twitter.com/rainbowrowell
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