Multiparty Chat

[Mike Phillips]

I subscribed to this list to learn more about Pidgin so that I could ask 
intelligent questions, but most of the discussions are about topics that 
far exceed my understanding of Pidgin's capabilities. Currently, a 
number of people in my group chat on a BBS using the site's internal 
flash client. Not only does the board require a monthly or annual 
subscription that is too expensive, but also the moderators are getting 
extremely restrictive in what can be chatted. Therefore, I want to set 
up a chat room that requires a login to access (membership required, but 
not paid membership.) Some people would want to use a web interface, but 
I would want to use Pidgin, as some others probably would.

Can you recommend a service to host the chat? Is there software that I 
can install on my cPanel-hosted shared server account? Pidgin is my 
current IM client for AOL and Yahoo, but it is amazing to see how much 
more it can do.

Thanks!