Why: sticky front page code, shows latest non-sticky on logged-in front page

Question

I have this code to display only the latest sticky post on the front page.

the strange thing is that, when I'm logged-in it shows non-sticky latest post, even if it's private...

<?php get_header(); ?>
<?php if ( is_home() && !is_paged() ) : ?>

<?php
    // Get IDs of sticky posts
    $sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' );
    // first loop to display only my single, 
    // MOST RECENT sticky post
    $most_recent_sticky_post = new WP_Query( array( 
    // Only sticky posts
    'post__in'            => $sticky, 
    // Treat them as sticky posts
    'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1, 
    // Order by date to get the most recently published sticky post
    'orderby'             => date, 
    // Get only the one most recent
    'posts_per_page'      => 1
    ) );
?>

<?php while ( $most_recent_sticky_post->have_posts() ) :  $most_recent_sticky_post->the_post(); ?>
<!-- your code to display most recent sticky -->

<?php endwhile; wp_reset_query(); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

The idea is that those logged-in see the exact same thing as those not logged-in.

Does anyone know how to present that?

Answer 1

If you want both logged in and non-logged in user to see the same thing then you only want 'published' post status, at least it doesn't make sense to me to show 'private' posts to non-logged in users. Alter you query to include that condition.

$most_recent_sticky_post = new WP_Query( 
  array( 
    'post_status' => array( 'publish' ),
    // Only sticky posts
    'post__in'            => $sticky, 
    // Treat them as sticky posts
    'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1, 
    // Order by date to get the most recently published sticky post
    'orderby'             => date, 
    // Get only the one most recent
    'posts_per_page'      => 1
    ) 
);

ignore_sticky_posts, when true as you have it, treats sticky posts like ordinary posts, which is not what your code comment says but I think that is what you mean.