I'm sorry I can't reproduce the issue...
This thread global thread was promoted to an article and it's perfectly visible/fine to me and even to guests-
Thread:
http://www.qapla.com/mods/showthread...d-Article-Test
Article:
http://www.qapla.com/mods/content.ph...d-Article-Test
The "Global Thread" is just 1 additional field added to the thread table that the article system would completely ignore. The only thing that makes a global thread global is a change to the query that finds threads in a specific forum- it really shouldn't have anything to do with permissions at all. I'd imagine the issue is coming from somewhere else.