Pardon?

I regularly read a number of biblioblogs (blogs that deal with theology, religion and bible studies) and occasionally they yield up some reasonably interesting nuggets, but I came across two today - of a certain theological persuasion - that were literally begging for money for the upkeep of either their sites or some associated mission. I was quite astonished, and yet there were replies saying things like 'Yeah...sorry to hear about your financial worries, have X number of dollars.' What? Isn't this open to all sorts of abuse? How do people know where their money goes, or are they all so anxious to buy a bit of heaven-time that they daren't go 'Hang on a minute....' How is this so different from the selling of indulgences that the Reformation got all hot under the collar about way back when?