Alternative Way to Pass Checkbox Array to $_GET - Besides Square Braces

I understand that if I use a checkbox value of name[], then I will receive a data array on the server (when using PHP), named 'name[]'. This has worked fine for me, but I'm running into some URL sizes that could cause issues with less robust IE browsers and all the encoded square braces are killing me in this area, easily causing the URL length to be at least 4-6 times longer than what it could possibly be, if another way were available. Is there a reliable method using javascript (jquery syntax even better) to intercept a checkbox forms values and convert them into something like this:

"&checkboxarray=1-23-45-13-67"

I figure that on the other end I can easily explode $_GET['checkboxarray'] into an actual array and go from there as I usually do with matching the selection array against the options array, etc... I just don't know if it's possible or how to create alter the submit process.

Side note, isn't passing "name[]" to a URL non-standards compliant anyways? Every browser I've used auto encodes it, but not Mozilla, however it seems to work fine.