Thank you for your prompt response!

Check out the documentation:

We have a dedicated guide page https://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/WolframFunctionRepository.html

Here is the page just for ResourceFunction: https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ResourceFunction.html

You're right, it would have been smart to have one or both of these prominently linked in the blog.

Could you, or somebody, please tell us — with a simple, direct explanation that perhaps a Mathematica user of some 20 years standing — exactly how to use a function already in the Wolfram Function Repository?

For example, suppose I want to use the function SymmetricDifference in my local Mathematica notebook.

1. How do I retrieve it right now for that notebook?
2. How do I make it available in subsequent sessions without having to go back to the on-line Wolfram Function Repository each time?

Here's one source of my mystification. Input

    ResourceFunction["SymmetricDifference"]

does return as output some kind of gadget, with a gray background, bearing text like [*] SymmetricDifference (it's a placeholder symbol, actually, where I just showed an asterisk).

Yet strangely,

    Information[%]

gives two ResourceObject errors messages that "The specified ResourceObject could not be found", then followed by a formatted version of:

            ResourceFunction[
            ResourceObject[
            Association[
              "Name" -> "SymmetricDifference", 
               "ShortName" -> "SymmetricDifference", 
               "UUID" -> "4f3f7f00-c70a-455e-8bd4-1eaa2b455ae5", 
               "ResourceType" -> "Function", "Version" -> None, 
               "Description" -> "The complement of the union and intersection of \
            lists with duplicates deleted", 
               "SymbolName" -> "FunctionRepository`$\
            4f3f7f00c70a455e8bd41eaa2b455ae5`SymmetricDifference"], 
              ResourceSystemBase -> "https://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/\
            resourcesystem/api/1.0"]]

Next, if I try, say,

    ResourceFunction["SymmetricDifference"][{1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5, 6}]

then again I get a "ResourceObject::notf: The specified ResourceObject could not be found." error message.

So I don't even know the answer to my question 1., let alone the answer to 2.

Somebody needs to write up a simple, clear, direct explanation of how to use the WFR -- and make it prominently available as part of the Mathematica documentation center or, at least, on the WFR site. Without that, all the docs I've seen so far about how to write and submit definitions to the WFR are of little avail except to the insiders who already understand what's going on.

Yes, Mathematica 12.0.0. (macOS)

I just ran CloudConnect[], which apparently worked OK as it returned as output the value of my $WolframID. (Shouldn't that happen automatically, when I start Mathematica? When I do, on the Welcome Screen I do see the signing-in process happening automatically.)

But still the same error as before when I try to use

    ResourceFunction["SymmetricDifference"][{1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5, 6}]

namely, the error message "ResourceObject::notf: The specified ResourceObject could not be found." and the output:

    $Failed[{1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5, 6}]

Wait... I quit that Mathematica session and opened a new one. Now without evaluating CloudConnect[], the input ResourceFunction["SymmetricDifference"][{1, 2, 3}, {3, 4, 5, 6}] works OK. And so does using the iconized output from ResourceFunction["SymmetricDifference"] in that same expression.

This mysterious failure then success more or less answers my first question.

Now what about an answer to my 2nd question?

And related to that, what exactly are the distinctions between, and relationships among, the following directories?

~/Library/Wolfram/Objects/DeployedResources/Function
~/Library/Wolfram/Objects/Persistence/ResourceNames
~/Library/Wolfram/Objects/Resources

I note that in the first of those three directories I have a subdirectory SymmetricDifference containing two items, namely, object.wl and put.wl, the second of which includes among its associations:

"ResourceLocations " -> {LocalObject["file:///Users/murray/Library/Wolfram/O\
bjects/Resources/4f3/4f3f7f00-c70a-455e-8bd4-1eaa2b455ae5 "]}

Or do I not need to understand the relationships among those directories in order to intelligently (with understanding) use a ResourceFunction?

I think it would be nice also to have a "What's new section" for new functions for the users visiting frequently the repository. New functions could stay there for a couple of weeks along with their alphabetic or topic sorting.

I think this thread could use some BirdSay:

ResourceFunction["user:rhennigan/BirdSayCommunityPost"][
    "https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1703373"
]

Ahem. What it needs, my young friend, is an artistic rendition.

Start by grabbing the full text.

wfrThreadText = 
 Import["https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1703621", 
  "Plaintext"]

I'll spare everyone the long string but it is readily seen that the text of interest is between the second and third appearances of my name.

posns = StringPosition[wfrThreadText, "Daniel Lichtblau"]

(* Out[370]= {{3351, 3366}, {3453, 3468}, {10171, 10186}, {11139, 
  11154}, {11171, 11186}, {11522, 11537}} *)

I have to step in a number of characters to avoid some stuff on the page. Similar issue at the end altthough less stepping needed.

myText = StringTake[wfrThreadText, {posns[[2, 2]] + 160, posns[[3, 1]] - 20}];

And now we make a picture.

ResourceFunction["TextToKaleidoscope"][myText]

The hard part was spelling "kaleidoscope".

I wish I'd read this about 20 minutes ago when, right before hitting the Submit button on two candidate functions, I said "Oh what the heck" when I could not figure out how to format arguments. The consolation is learning that I am not alone.

Tracking usage is under discussion. I believe we do count downloads but I'm fuzzy on details. It is not yet determined how we will make this available to contributors but I think we are in consensus that that would be a good thing to do.