Do not animate the menu when initializing.
Better version-based handling of settings.

1.) Ensure objMerge always leaves the default structure intact.
2.) Store the version in the settings, and only use objMerge when
    the version changes.
Use duration=0 to turn off toggleMenu animations.

duration=0 is a terser way to disable the animations, particularly
since there are multiple animate() calls in toggleMenu. Both the chatList
width and the menu itself should be applied without animation on the initial
page load.