Its not you......its a new default setting Chess.com is enforcing for all new accounts.
I think it's been fixed, but my setting was changed to friends only and kept changing back, so unless they reverted all the settings of people that got changed, it is very possible the accounts you can't see notes on, if they are not new and this a new default, is due to the member's not noticing.
I used to be able to see and post notes to people who were not my friends. Now, I am unable to see or post notes unless someone is my friend? Why is this? I have not received any message about violating any rules.