diff --git a/rstblog/builder.py b/rstblog/builder.py
index 76e8cc1..41a5896 100644
--- a/rstblog/builder.py
+++ b/rstblog/builder.py
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ def is_new(self):
 
     @property
     def public(self):
-        return self.config.get('public', True)
+        value = self.config.get('public', 'yes')
+        return str(value).lower() in ['y', 'true', 'yes', 'on', 'yeah', 'yep']
 
     @property
     def slug(self):
@@ -333,7 +334,7 @@ def run(self):
         contexts = list(self.iter_contexts())
 
         for context in contexts:
-            if context.needs_build:
+            if context.public and context.needs_build:
                 key = context.is_new and 'A' or 'U'
                 context.run()
                 print key, context.source_filename