I would like to suggest - not sure if this was already considered and dismissed - a change in how plugins are managed. The use case begins with a company that either gets their plugins from one or more third parties or
builds their own plugins (considered for this use case a third party). Authorized product URLs are periodically scanned for updates and made available on the standard Jenkins Plugins page, highlighted as from one of the alternate sources. The set of URLs to consult should always include the standard Jenkins root, by default, and could have additional URLs added to the System Configuration by authorized users (a.k.a. Administrators or higher - this may add a new class of user). Also, by default, the URLs must have valid certificates in order to be processed, although in the case of the company's own plugins, that might be something that could be bypassed - again by an authorized user only. As part of this use case, the ability to install a plugin through the individual HPI upload mechanism may be restricted. Also part of this use case would be the ability to exclude specific plugins from being installed, either for security or policy reasons.
I realize that philosophically that plugins all should be at
jenkins.io, but in many situations - my own, in particular, the plugins are not of general interest and may be of interest to under 500 users. The objective is for administrators to more tightly control what Jenkins plugins are used but to retain the ability to support third party plugins.
If this is desired (and practical), I would be willing to take this on - or at least to try. Maybe this is a discussion to be tabled until a future in face meeting.
Sincerely,
Randall Becker