Notes should not appear in comments feed

[odkdn1]

Related to https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64145 the RSS feeds at <site-url>/comments/feed and <site-url>/comments/feed/atom still show internal notes to the public.

Quote from the referenced issue:

Notes should never appear in the context of regular (front end) comments. Although they share the same comments table, notes use a specific "note" comment type. Notes of this type need to be consistently excluded wherever comments or comment counts are shown.

[odkdn1]

See also ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/72607#issuecomment-4944348243

[adamsilverstein]

Thanks for the bug report @odkdn1 - I'll take a look.

ps. I've started working on https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35214

I confirmed that the three new tests all fail when running against trunk as expected:

There were 3 failures:

1) Tests_Query_CommentFeed::test_main_comment_feed_should_exclude_notes
Comments feed should not include notes.
Failed asserting that an array does not contain 17.

/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/commentFeed.php:113

2) Tests_Query_CommentFeed::test_archive_comment_feed_should_exclude_notes
Archive comments feed should not include notes.
Failed asserting that an array does not contain 18.

/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/commentFeed.php:142

3) Tests_Query_CommentFeed::test_single_comment_feed_should_exclude_notes
Singular comments feed should not include notes.
Failed asserting that an array does not contain 19.

/var/www/tests/phpunit/tests/query/commentFeed.php:175

[adamsilverstein]

@odkdn1 can you give ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/12486 a test to verify it fixes the issue you reported?

I tested it and it works, thank you :+1:

Steps

1. Created dev environment from trunk.
2. Added note, set to resolved.
3. Note appears in ​http://localhost:8889/comments/feed and ​http://localhost:8889/comments/feed/atom
4. Switched to [adamsilverstein:fix/65613-notes-comment-feed your branch]
5. Rebuild
6. Note does not appear anymore in ​http://localhost:8889/comments/feed and ​http://localhost:8889/comments/feed/atom

[khokansardar]

Patch testing report

Patch / PR tested

• ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/12486
• trunk @ 1c57961f42 with PR branch fix/65613-notes-comment-feed

Environment

WordPress: 7.1-alpha-62161-src
PHP: 8.2.18 (Docker)
MySQL: 8.0.36
OS: macOS 26.5.2
Verified at the query layer via PHPUnit (Tests_Query_CommentFeed), all three raw feed paths
Local wordpress-develop @ ​http://localhost:8889

Steps

1. Checked out PR branch fix/65613-notes-comment-feed, ran npm run build:dev.
2. Ran the three new tests (test_main/archive/single_comment_feed_should_exclude_notes).
3. Reverted ONLY src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php back to trunk (keeping the new tests), rebuilt, and re-ran the three tests to reproduce the bug.
4. Restored the fix, rebuilt, and re-ran the three tests plus the full commentFeed.php class and the feed/feeds groups.

Results

• Before state (fix reverted): fail as expected — the note comment leaks into all three feeds (main #17, archive #18, singular #19), reproducing the ticket.
• Main/front-page comment feed: pass — note excluded, all 15 regular comments retained.
• Archive/search comment feed: pass — note excluded, count correct (15).
• Singular post comment feed: pass — note excluded, count correct (5).
• Regression: pass — full commentFeed.php (6 tests), feed group (44 tests, 318 assertions), feeds group all green.

Conclusion
PR #12486 adds comment_type != 'note' to the three raw comment-feed WHERE clauses in WP_Query, closing the gap left by [61105] / #64145, which only guarded WP_Comment_Query. The change is minimal (3 production lines), idiomatic, and matches the raw-SQL exclusion already used by wp_count_comments(). It is NULL-safe (comment_type is NOT NULL DEFAULT '', so regular/pingback/trackback comments are retained) and column-qualified so it is unambiguous under the posts JOIN. No backward-compatibility concern: the singular exclusion sits inside the default value passed to the comment_feed_where filter, so plugins can still adjust it. The only extra-scope items are test-only cosmetics (typed static properties, : void return types). Recommend commit.

[adamsilverstein]

In 62804:

Comments: Exclude notes from comment feed queries.

Add comment_type != 'note' to the three raw comment feed queries, matching the exclusion already used by WP_Comment_Query and wp_count_comments(). [61105] excluded the note type in WP_Comment_Query, but the comment feed queries are built with raw SQL that bypasses WP_Comment_Query entirely, so the exclusion never reached feeds.

Follow-up to [61105].

Props westonruter, wildworks, mukesh27, odkdn1, khokansardar.
Fixes #65613.

[ehtis]

Hi @odkdn1

Is there a preferred way you would like to be credited in an upcoming WP release post? So far we have 'odkdn1' linking to your WordPress.org profile.

[odkdn1]

@ehtis Thank you for asking. You can use my full name Elio Gubser.

[jorbin]

Based on the reported version, I think this would be good to backport [62804] to the 7.0 branch. I am looking for a 2nd committer to sign off on this.

[desrosj]

[62804] looks good to backport.

[jorbin]

In 63035:

Comments: Exclude notes from comment feed queries.

Add comment_type != 'note' to the three raw comment feed queries, matching the exclusion already used by WP_Comment_Query and wp_count_comments(). [61105] excluded the note type in WP_Comment_Query, but the comment feed queries are built with raw SQL that bypasses WP_Comment_Query entirely, so the exclusion never reached feeds.

Follow-up to [61105].

Reviewed by jorbin, desrosj.
Merges [62804] to 7.0 branch.

Props adamsilverstein, westonruter, wildworks, mukesh27, odkdn1, khokansardar.
Fixes #65613.