diff --git a/docs/production/reverse-proxies.md b/docs/production/reverse-proxies.md
index 5717637e3f..45b8b65f08 100644
--- a/docs/production/reverse-proxies.md
+++ b/docs/production/reverse-proxies.md
@@ -255,13 +255,13 @@ things you need to be careful about when configuring it:
    browsers. This [nginx code snippet][nginx-proxy-longpolling-config]
    does this.
 
-   The key configuration options are, for the `/json/events` and
-   `/api/1/events` endpoints:
+   The key configuration options are:
 
-   - `proxy_read_timeout 1200;`. It's critical that this be
-     significantly above 60s, but the precise value isn't important.
-   - `proxy_buffering off`. If you don't do this, your `nginx` proxy may
-     return occasional 502 errors to clients using Zulip's events API.
+   - `proxy_read_timeout 1200;`. It's critical that this be significantly above
+     60s, but the precise value isn't important. This is most important for the
+     events API, but must be applied to all endpoints.
+   - `proxy_buffering off`. If you don't do this, your `nginx` proxy may return
+     occasional 502 errors to clients using Zulip's events API.
 
 1. The other tricky failure mode we've seen with `nginx` reverse
    proxies is that they can load-balance between the IPv4 and IPv6
diff --git a/puppet/zulip/files/nginx/uwsgi_params b/puppet/zulip/files/nginx/uwsgi_params
index 09a1006932..47acef235e 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip/files/nginx/uwsgi_params
+++ b/puppet/zulip/files/nginx/uwsgi_params
@@ -18,4 +18,8 @@ uwsgi_param HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO $trusted_x_forwarded_proto;
 uwsgi_param HTTP_X_FORWARDED_SSL "";
 uwsgi_param HTTP_X_PROXY_MISCONFIGURATION $x_proxy_misconfiguration;
 
+# This value is the default, and is provided for explicitness; it must
+# be longer than the configured 55s "harakiri" timeout in uwsgi
+uwsgi_read_timeout 60s;
+
 uwsgi_pass django;
diff --git a/puppet/zulip/templates/uwsgi.ini.template.erb b/puppet/zulip/templates/uwsgi.ini.template.erb
index 825d578547..eab67bb121 100644
--- a/puppet/zulip/templates/uwsgi.ini.template.erb
+++ b/puppet/zulip/templates/uwsgi.ini.template.erb
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ auto-procname=true
 procname-prefix-spaced=zulip-django
 
 # Longest response allowed, in seconds, before killing the worker
-harakiri=60
+harakiri=55