access control

The access control in Elgg is nice, but for my users, I know it will be too confusing. So I installed the AllPublic (edit access.php so only option is "Public.") plugin and revised it so only "Logged In Users" was available. Then I simply deleted the dropdown list form element (stupid move).

I thought, stupidly, that created content access would default to "Logged in Users". I was wrong, for some reason it defaults to private. So I searched for every instance of "access_id = 0" and changed it to "access_id = 1." This did not work. Then upon reading this, I tried adding that bit of code in my allpublic plugin. Again, no change, content still defaults to private.

I am guessing that I cannot simply delete the dropdown form element from access.php. I noticed in its code a mention of disabling. How is this done?

Considering my dillema, any suggestions? My users' content should always be available to logged in users only, and so they should not even be aware of that option.