Design flaw. I assume the original implementer built it for user profiles and later extended it to a dashboard. There wasn't a good way to remove the access button later.

Elgg 1.8 fixes this.

Thanks Cash! Been wondering for a long time and just now got a chance to ask. Mystery solved. Thanks again, appreciate it.

If one is hung up @ < 1.8 - this culd be patched into the core widgets' logic ->

Profile can do a set_context and the core controls can do get_context to display/not display the access portion of views. Unfortunately since the code s in the core (no overrides allowed) - this would 80% have to be a 'hack' to speak of. 

Although - could use the (a new plugin?) page_draw hook to patch the output html and remove the 'edit' buttons when on non-profile views.

I might be tempted to code this.. if "sufficient" interest materializes.

I am interested. In fact I never noticed that till now. Yeah, it is and odd finding. It seems like a lot of work, but I could get you one or two cups of coffee ;)

It is not really.. *that mucho coding. Whether I get into the mood depends on whether enough people might need and want such a feature. I do not myself use any widgets on the MainPage.. so no use for me at all. If enough Elgg friends and acquaintances ask - maybe will code. (If I get anybody at all trying to slam me like some idiot did a day or two ago calling me a "troll" on one one of my technical posts, I will "throw a danged fit" lolz ;) Joaz has posted a new comment on this discussion topic | Showcase of elgg websites 228 days ago? LoL Dhrup jeje, are u a troll? :P More sites? (yesterday) what an idiot ? lo que es un idiota ? es este tipo de verdad ? o desde el polo sur ??

So that our users don't get confused, we have gone away from the dashboard and replaced it with the river. We'll see what 1.8 looks like when it's done and then decide if we want to go back again. For now, we can do without it.