How sweet it is
Checked their laconics, and the only difference is that Technically a Smile involves teeth baring. Looks to be The Same But More Specific.
Viable enough to open for discussion.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
The laconics are the same. The main descriptions seem to point to the difference as a character smiling in a manner that appears insincere vs a character trying and failing to smile at all. Or in other words, Technically a Smile is still, technically, a smile. Whereas The Unsmile is most definitely not.
Still doesn't seem like much of a distinction to me.
No, the other one.
Checking what it seems like they're supposed to be, there's a bit of a difference.
Technically a Smile is what looks like a smile, but isn't meant to evoke any of those feelings.
The Unsmile is a smile, genuine or attempted, that's meant to evoke the feelings of a natural (human) smile, but evokes anything but.
They really seem more like opposites to me, but poorly written, and probably with tons of misuse (haven't checked).
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Clock is set.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Too subtle of a difference, to be honest. In practice, I mean.
We don't need justice when we can forgive. We don't need tolerance when we can love.
Zzzzzzzzzz
I disagree that it's too subtle to be different. The Unsmile is someone trying to smile and failing, for any of a number of reasons; the result is not necessarily "threatening"; The page image is a good example — Sheldon is trying to smile, but simply doesn't know how to do so at will.
. Technically a Smile is when the "smile" is when the mouth is in the proper position for a broad smile, but the teeth are n't simply showing a bit, they're bared in a threatening way. The page image is not very good; This is more what the trope is talking about (Florence is genuinely happy and smiling, but —she's a wolf. The same thing we'd call a smile looks like a threat, even though it's not usually)
She does it again — and she knows that she's doing it, even though she's not trying to:
edited 8th Jan '17 2:49:33 PM by Madrugada
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
By what you said, wouldn't Technically a Smile be The Unsmile by having the subject trying to smile and "failing for any of a number of reasons" - specifically, looking threatening instead?
Clock is ticking.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
How sweet it is
Clock expired; closing.
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
I believe Technically a Smile overlaps with The Unsmile too much for them to be separate tropes. They should merge and be the same thing. If you believe otherwise, please convince me and then fix the muddling that's going on.