Talk:Ocean Tower

Meaning of abbreviation

What does SPI stand for? 86.134.117.74 (talk) 17:58, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

South Padre Island. violet/riga _^[talk] 17:55, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Known as name change / move

I suggest renaming this page to "Ocean Tower (The Leaning Tower of South Padre Island)" because the nickname is more commonly used and clarifies location. Please weigh in. Librarian (talk) 19:49, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

No. Wikipedia doesn't title articles that way unless there is a need for a disambiguation. The simple title is best with a redirect from The Leaning Tower of South Padre Island. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 22:07, 27 July 2025 (UTC)

While Ocean Tower may be the formal name, public familiarity and search behavior overwhelmingly lean toward "Leaning Tower of South Padre Island." Therefore, the current title may not reflect common usage, violating Wikipedia’s own policy:

=== 🔹 From Wikipedia:Article titles: ===

The title of an article should generally be the name or description of the subject that is most commonly used in reliable sources, and is recognizable to readers.

162.198.97.65 (talk) 02:14, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

Multiple reliable sources—including Chron, San Antonio Express‑News, ENR, and the engineering analysis by Walter P Moore—consistently refer to the structure as the ‘Leaning Tower of South Padre’ when describing Ocean Tower. Per WP:COMMONNAME, this establishes that readers overwhelmingly recognize the building under that name.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Leaning-South-Padre-tower-turned-into-55-000-tons-626882.php

https://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/leaning-tower-of-south-padre-to-be-torn-down-1532407.php

https://www.walterpmoore.com/projects/ocean-tower-failure-analysis#:~:text=leaning%20tower%20of%20South%20Padre 162.198.97.65 (talk) 02:21, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

These examples don't prove what you think they do. The first one is using "leaning" as merely an adjective describing the tower. The second one uses both "Leaning tower of South Padre" and "Ocean Tower". The title of the third one is just "Ocean Tower", with reference to the longer phrase as a nickname in the body of the page. Indyguy (talk) 04:30, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

I see your point that sources does use "Leaning" as an adjective. But I respectfully have a different view, the sources do use it in headlines in a nickname sense. That said, my intent with citing those articles was to show that in practice—particularly from a common use standpoint people don’t even know the structure is not recognizable as "Ocean Tower." Ut subjectively is referred to almost universally by the nickname, which seems relevant under WP:COMMONNAME. Sort of like The "leaning" tower of Pissa "leaning" is an adjective, even if it's not the official name of the Tower of Pisa.

=== 🔹 From Wikipedia:Article titles: ===

The title of an article should generally be the name or description of the subject that is most commonly used in reliable sources, and is recognizable to readers.

Nothing about adjectives or adverbs in the policy. Policy highlight intent is in the commonly referred to sense, at least that's how I interpret it. Linguistics aside the public has latched on to the moniker.

That said, I’m not planning to revert anything or escalate. I’ll let the talk page sit for a bang and see if others weigh in. I do appreciate your feedback and the good-faith back-and-forth. Thank you for your contribution. 162.198.97.65 (talk) 11:53, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

I did a basic case study using Google Search, since it reflects how the readers behavior to seek out information.

Search Term 1: "Ocean Tower"

Wikipedia does appear—but it is surrounded by off-topic results (other Ocean Towers in Florida, Hawaii, etc.).

Even by page 2, most links are unrelated.

Some headlines only reference "The Leaning Tower of South Padre" in the article preview text—not the actual search term.

Search Term 2: "Leaning Tower of South Padre Island"

Returns multiple relevant articles, including:

My Wikipedia page Move: (Albeit Cahced)

The implosion event

Local media coverage

Engineering case studies

The results are far more specific, relevant, and consistent across Page 1 of SERPS

This suggests that the nickname yields better discoverability, while the formal name ("Ocean Tower") returns scant and often irrelevant results. Albeit on Google, but that's where readers go. 162.198.97.65 (talk) 12:12, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

After taking in my morning cup of coffee, I think I may abandon this move for now, unless either of you are swayed after pondering this for a bit. After sleeping on it, and being prompted to do more analysis per @Indyguy points, I'm not going to fight consensus as I can happily concede that a redirect is good enough for readers to be redirected to the original, per @CambridgeBayWeather Additionally a typing in a direct search in, Google and wikipedia it also shows up in the infobox state as well with the cached redirect showing "Ocean Tower (The Leaning Tower of South Padre)". Good enough for the public / readers seeking it out. Which dovetails nicely into my intent.

It's obscure, old, the building was demolished Lol and is a local to the South Texas area, it made sense to this reader (me) as I know it as and was searching for it as "The Leaning Tower Of South Padre". Thanks for the feedback 162.198.97.65 (talk) 12:48, 28 July 2025 (UTC)