# my original idea was to have a getter/setter for each "extended info" item:

sub pass_ticker_id{
    my( $self, $value ) = @_;
    if( defined $value ){
        $self->{pass_ticker_id} = $value ? 1 : 0;
    }
    return $self->{pass_ticker_id};
}

# we could lump them together:

sub pass_extended_info{
    my( $self, $value ) = @_;
    if( defined $value ){
        $self->{pass_ticker_id} = $value ? 1 : 0;
        $self->{kitchen_sink} = $value ? 1 : 0;
    }
    return $value;
}

# the ticker methods could then be something like:

sub threaded_ids {
    my( $self, $base ) = @_;
        $self->{agent}->get(   $self->{site}

                             . "?node_id=180684;id=$base" );
    $self->{agent}->success()
        or die "Unable to fetch thread ticker for id = $base.\n";
    my $struct = XMLin( 
        $self->{agent}->content(),
        ForceArray => 1,
        KeepRoot   => 1
    );
    my $ref = $self->pass_extended_info ?
              { 'ticker_id' => 180684, 'data' => $struct } :
              $struct;
    return $ref;
}

# if you wanted to lump the extended info into a single hash:

    my $ref = $self->pass_extended_info ?
              { 'info' => { 'ticker_id' => 180684,
                            'kitchen_sink' => $self->{kitchen_sink} },
                'data' => $struct } :
              $struct;

# if the extended_info part was sub-ified:

sub threaded_ids {
    my( $self, $base ) = @_;
        $self->{agent}->get(   $self->{site}
                             . "?node_id=180684;id=$base" );
    $self->{agent}->success()
        or die "Unable to fetch thread ticker for id = $base.\n";
    my $struct = XMLin( 
        $self->{agent}->content(),
        ForceArray => 1,
        KeepRoot   => 1
    );
    return $self->_format_struct( '180684', $struct );
}

sub _format_struct{
    my( $self, $tickerid, $struct ) = @_;
    my $ref = $self->pass_extended_info ?
              { 'ticker_id' => $tickerid, 'data' => $struct } :
              $struct;
    return $ref;
}

# or, to really make a mess of things:

sub threaded_ids {
    my( $self, $base ) = @_;
    my $url = $self->{site} . "?node_id=180684;id=$base";
    $self->_get_ticker( $url ) or return;
    return $self->_parse_struct( 180684 );
}

sub _get_ticker{
    my( $self, $url ) = @_;
    $self->{agent}->get( $url );
    $self->{agent}->success() or
        do{
            warn "Unable to fetch ticker for $url\n";
            return;
        };
}

sub _parse_struct{
    my( $self, $tickerid ) = @_;
    my $struct = XMLin( 
        $self->{agent}->content(),
        ForceArray => 1,
        KeepRoot   => 1
    );
    return $self->_format_struct( $tickerid, $struct );
}