Hard Feeder Lessons

Years of birdfeeding is a great teacher. Unfortunately, the lessons about feeders come hard. Over time I've retired various feeders as their defects are exposed. Beginners (I was a naive one) fall for the dangdest things. Here's a few of my lessons:

(1) Never pick a feeder you can't clean with a basic brush. How many tubes are nightmares to muck out?
(2) Think about squirrels. If it's too easy to let them raid the feeder, they'll notice! Result: baffles and grills make sense. BUT, fancy anti-squirrel technology is almost always a failure. I use cages. They work.
(3) Waste happens. Consider the feeder at right. The ports are above the bottom of the seed well. That means: seed goes to waste! It eventually rots if you don't toss it out early enough, and it's tossed either way.
(4) Don't overengineer. Having success with nyjer seed socks, I tried an extra large one. It bombed. So did better quality black ones. So did a purpose built nyjer tube.
(5) Most platforms are dogs. While most ventilate, crud can still build up and it's messy as all out. Aim for those that are easiest to clean and are best protected from the elements.

I am sure to learn more. Time is a great teacher. Perhaps my hard lessons will help some of you weed out the rotten feeders.