Offline Messages

[C. A. C.]

As a new user of Pidgin and frequent receiver of offline messages 
through Yahoo, I was wondering if you will, in the near future, make 
this option available? (If I simply haven't seen where to set it up, I 
apologize.)

Also, in order to participate in the pidgin community, how do I set up 
an IRC account? Do I need to download something to my computer to do 
this? And how is this account then set up through Pidgin?

Thank you kindly for taking the time to read my questions. Please have a 
lovely day.