To put it straight, Minerva is meant for those who just want to chat. It's designed for those who enjoy an online community. Here's just some of the features Minerva offers:
Compact interface - Have all your channels in one window, or one window for every channel.
Optional Floating Taskbar lists all open chat windows for quit switching.
Custom command aliases - Create your own command shortcuts using the built in command alias system
Custom contextual menus - Define what you want on your userlist menu (work in progress)
Nickname Autocomplete - Start typing a nick and press the tab key. Minerva show a list of closest matching nicknames, or just complete the nick if there's only one match.
Custom definable message formats - Everyone likes their channel text formatted differently. Minerva lets you decide
Text / HTML Channel Logging - Why should your logs be less formatted then your output? Take a look at how Minerva logs can look.
Individual channel settings - Every channel remembers it's own settings, so when you come back the next day the window opens right where you left off
XDCC Tracker - For those who hang out in XDCC file sharing channels, Minerva offers a XDCC Tracker which catalogs all the file bot offerings
URL Tracker - Need a URL that someone said an hour ago? Don't scroll up, just look in the tracker.
iChat Style IRC Buddylist - Floating window shows all your IRC buddies for each open network, and shows their status.