It’s called a “killfile” — a script you can use with the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox.
See these threads that have more on it (search within the thread for “killfile”:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2143294/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2489741/posts?page=102#102
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1856020/posts
Thanks. I’ll have to look into it.